Lilies not grown, are they dead?

Hi,

Last year I built my new pond and put a few Koi & gold fish in. Then put 2 baskets of marginal plants in the shallow end from a local garden centre, which done very well last year and growing well at the moment. Then I found & bought 3 double flower water lilies from eBay. When they arrived they had green shoots growing. I planted them up in 3 baskets with the crowns abouve the gravel as instructed and placed them in the deepest parts of the pond. 1 started to grow long stems, but the other 2 didn't put anything on. By autunm there was no growth on any of them and I didn't even get a flower.

At the minute I've left them where they are just in case they decide to grow, but I have no idea if water lilies dies back at the end of the season and starts growing in the spring. Do you think they are dead if they didn't grow last year?

Cheers

Calum

 

Hi Clum
Th trick with growing water lily is to get the variety for the depth of pond , some are realy strong growers other not so , so you need to check the depth then check the variety and will it like it or not , I know buying from Ebay can be cheeper but buying from a specialits grower they will be able to advise you what would be best for your pond once you have bought one or newly poted up you sit it on bricks about 6 inches below the water then about every two weeks you drop it a couple of inches wait for the leaves to get back up to the surface then drop them down again come the end of the summer they will be growing realy well , the trouble with planting at the bottom of the pond straight away is no sun light plus the water is very cold I suspect this is what made the other two not grow , water lily do die off over winter but then resprout in the spring


Hope this helps

Spruce

 

Hi Spruce,

Thanks for the reply. Never knew about lowering lilies slowly over time and I have never read this on the labels or in books. I think I'll have another try and follow your instructions.

Cheers,

Calum

 

Hi Calum

What depth do you want to grow them ?? also what colour I will tell you a variety that would be good as well

and Iam confident others will help on here as well

Spruce

 

Hi Spruce,

Thanks for the reply. To make things easier, I hunted down the email with the names of the lilies that I bought last year. The names are:-

2 x Nymphaea Gloire du Temple Sur Lot Water Lily
1 x Nymphaea Rene Gerard Pink Water Lily Lilies

I had 1 basket at about 60cm deep and the other 2 baskets at 1m deep. I'm not keen on yellow flowers, but do like creams. I like most other colours and go more for double flower than single when I can.

Cheers,

Calum