I know lillies are evasive but I would rather fish in lilies instead of this pond weed I have. My one acre pond has an area of 5' deep around the perimeter, 10-12' deep throughout half of the pond. Is there any lily that will only grow in the 6' depth or less? That way my deep parts are not covered. Thank you in advance!

I might stay with Kirk Strawn hybrids. Most, if not all, were developed in College Station so they should do fine in LA. I know purchasing hybrid lilies is obviously more expensive than finding some in another pond, but 5-6 years from now you'll be glad you stayed with a known plant.

My experience has been that Colorado's spread a little faster than the Denver's, but I can't remember ever seeing them in more than 4' of water. The Colorado's are extremely hardy, and have survived multiple droughts and did fine.

Here's list of his hybrids, but I'm not sure which one's are still available.
http://www.victoria-adventure.org/more_than_links_images/kirk_strawn/strawn_waterlily_cultivars.htm

This pic of some Colorado's than I planted in marginal water years ago. They spread laterally along the bank, and stop spreading once they hit the deeper water. This was an afternoon pic, so the flowers had already started closing.

EDIT: Just an afterthought, but hybrid lilies scream throw a frog at me, so I do.

I'll do some homework for you for the smallest varieties and you do the rest by looking up what these look like and window shop acceptable prices to you. Search other lily sellers and they will provide other variety names and size spread info. For the shallowest growing hardy water lilies look for the dwarf types that have a spread of 1'-3' and grow only in the shallowest area of a pond likely 1'-3' deep. Next deeper growing lilies are the Small variety 3'-5' some 6' - read descriptions. Mediums grow in 4'-7ft deep spread 6'-8'- depending.

Note - the smaller the varieties of lilies generally blooms will be smaller (2"-3"). Dwarf lilies have about 1/2 - 3/4 smaller leaves and blooms than Medium and Large lilies. Some Medium Large lilies can have 8" dia blooms 10"-12" dia leaves.
Dwarfs:
Hermine - white 1 -2.5ft spread and depth
Alba - white 1'-3' spread and spread
Helvola - yellow 1'-3'
Aurora - changable open yellow to 3rd day reddish pink 1'-3'
Paul Hariot chngable whitish pink to pinkish orange 3rd day 1'-3'
Liou - red 1'-3'
Indiana - chngable apricot to later orange red 1'-3' My favorite.
Laydekeri Lilacea - pink 1'-3'
Chrysantha - orange darkening to reddish 2'-3' not in hot ponds


A few of the SMALLS
Little Sue - chngable white pink then pink orange 2'-3'
Souix - chngble pale yellow, then apricot then copper red 3'-4'
James Brydon - red 3'-5'
Sulphurea - yellow 3'-5'
Breit Strawn - peach pink 2'-4'
Comanche - chngble 3'-5'

Suppliers Numerous ones the Web.
Ones I know:
Texas Water Lilies
Perrys Water Gardens
Lilypons Water Gardens
Zetts fish Farm sells relatively cheap generic lilies & pond plants.
Note pay close attention to how to plant bare root plants because carelessness can kill a $20+ lily.

Thanks, Bill. I'm also looking for some shallow non-invasive lilies and this gives me some ideas.

Thanks Fire and Bill. Time to shop for lilies!

I love frog fishing!

There is a really long list of varieties of Medium and Large spread sized hardy hybrid water lilies. If you don't mind them growing into 5-6ft ot maybe 7ft deep try some medium spread water lilies that have a wide range of colors.

Note for southern growers - The tropical water lilies will live year round where the the water stays above 60F.

I would also like to have some dwarf lillys in my pond but I'm worried that they would spread too much. Are dwarf lillys likely to be aggressive?

You are going to complain that the dwarf and small varieties of lilies spread way too slowly for providing good habitat especially if the pond is relatively new with compacted firm bottom. This is everyone I've sole them to says - "spread too slowly". Even in older ponds with soft bottom, I doubt you will ever see the dwarf or small varieties of lilies spread too much. One can easily control to eliminate or 'prune' them back them with glysophate herbicides. The small and dwarf (aka miniature) will spread so slow that you will likely want to try the Medium faster spreading varieties. Try it and you will see I am correct. MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THE VARIETY YOU ARE GETTING WHEN PLANTING SMALL, DWARF, AND MEDIUM VARIETIES OF LILIES.

Thank you Bill Cody! You are correct, I want lilies in the water now, who wants to wait for lilies to grow and attract fish. I think I will try the Medium ones.

Zett's Fish Farm has a giant collection of fish and plants, very cheap prices! I will be calling them Monday to place my order.

Cody Note: If you do get some Zetts lilies I suggest you buy at least one of the Dwarf-Small types to see how they perform for you. Zetts lily - plant prices are reasonable. Clean - rinse all root rhizomes well before planting. If it were me I would first plant the plant in a container as a type of quarantine to check for unwanted "piggy back" plant / weeds. Then transplant into the pond after several month in the container. I've observed the Zetts Attraction Red Lily (Medium Spread) do well in a pond with slow spreading. I am guessing their Northern Peach lily is a Georgia Peach or similar peach variety - mostly Medium spread. Zetts does offer several of the Dwarf and Small lily varieties that I mention above.

Well, I ordered a couple of medium lilies. I hope it's not a mistake but if so, it won't be the first one for this pond! Probably won't be the last either. Tomorrow I'm running up the road to get some large coppernose, it they have them. I have a few bass in the pond to eat the BH that got in there somehow so I need some big bream. Thank you for the advice Mr Cody.

ar-con - Cody Note - What varieties of Hybrid lily did you order? Whenever you see the lily patch getting too big for your needs, just hit the outside edges with a glysophate mixture and it will adequately trim back the size of the bed for patch of lilies. You will not regret planting hardy hybrid lilies for some fish habitat. Note that turtles can chop off the new leaves of growing lilies. Geese might also cut lily stems. Muskrats and nutria can eat lily roots. Grass carp will prevent newly planted lilies from getting established. You may need to take precautions if any of these factors are present.

I'll have to check the invoice. I don't remember right off the top of my head. As for the factors you mentioned, I have two grass carp in my 3/4 acre pond. Any recommendations on how to protect the lilies?

I will follow your suggestions on growing them in a container for a while. Maybe plant them right before Fall.

Growing lilies with grass carp will be a real challenge. Good Luck. Maybe cover the plants with tree branches so the carp cannot reach the lilies. Fencing is troublesome to install but you can try it.

I fenced my lilies from grass carp, or get your hands on some Spatterdock they won't eat it as long as your pond is steep no need to worry about Spatterdock taking over. I had grass carp eat lilies that were mixed in with Spatterdock and leave Spatterdock alone. Grass Carp Suck.

When spatterdock becomes well established it develops long roots 3"-4" in diameter and I've seen them clear up the pond and grow into 10ft -12ft of water after around 12-15 yrs. The owner said he had scuba divers remove Spatterdock in the deeper depths basically to almost the middle of his pond. Given more time they would have likely covered his entire 0.75 ac pond.

Well, I guess that I messed up again. I was trying to get a good price and got discount plants. The invoice lists them as "growers choice hardy white water lily" and "growers choice hardy changeable water lily. No specific variety but were listed as medium plants. When will I learn that you get what you pay for.