Special Article Written for 
Garden of Friendship/Garden Group 
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Water Lilies at Ladybug Country

There is nothing more soothing that the sound of water running.  This is why we decided to build our Enchanting Garden Pond three years ago (in 2000).  Before I get to the lilies I would like to take you on a tour of Hass Country.  I am a new member to Garden of Friendship.  If your coming to my house to see the ponds I would be rude if I didn’t show you around a little and give you a little background. 

  We moved to Hass Country in 1976.  It was seven and a half acres of virgin land on a hilltop with a beautiful view.  No one had live here for hundreds of years.  We built our cedar siding ranch style house with the tin roof on highest point, right next to a 300+year-old live oak tree that had lots of personality.  We built a cedar post fence around the house and tree.  In this area is where we worked on our gardens.  In the 27 years we have tried all kinds of plants.

Our first water garden/pond was an old steel bathtub we buried and put the waterfalls into it. We put it in the backyard.  It was never big enough for us.  In 1999 we started planning a new one in our front yard pond.  Our front yard is more like a courtyard size.  When you drive up to our house you see the fence with an arbor to greet out guests.  Just as you go thru the arbor you see this little bridge over our pond.  To the right is a fountain and to the left is the bigger part of the pond where the waterfalls is located.  Walk over the bridge and follow the cobblestones just a few steps to our porch and front door.  Some of you may have already seen photos of our pond on Ladybug Country Home website at http://www.geocities.com/lindach78945. If not please come for a visit.   I will not describe the pond or out home made Bio Filter here. You can read and see photos on the web site.

We are lucky to have a nice new water gardens center about 30 minutes from us called Midway Water Gardens http://www.midwaywatergardens.com/ . Owner Dustin Machinsky started his business at his home before he graduated high school.  It has grown and flourished in popularity in the three years since he graduated. He has many ponds with a large selection of plants, fish, garden art and all kinds of water equipment.   Check out this up and coming new water garden center on the Internet.  

We bought our first lily from Midway when we first built our new pond.  It was the Charlene Styawn, a Tropical,  with light yellow bloom picture to the right. We bought our 2nd one this spring called Pink Capensis with scalloped leaves, a Tropical,  pictured above center foreground with Charlene Stryawn in the back.  Dustin sells his water lilies  already potted and ready to drop in your pond.  He even put water lily fertilizer tabs in the pot so they would get a good start in our pond.  I just go back from Midway today and bought the cutest Yellow Snowflake water lily.  This one is different from other water lilies.  The small leaves are the same shape but are modeled with maroon. The blooms are quite different because they are small fussy 5 pointed stars.   I thought they were so cute, I just had to have one.  We placed all three near the waterfalls end of the pond, but not too close to the splash.    The first two have been putting on a good show for us this year. 

When we bought our first lily Dustin gave us instructions on how to pot and care for them.  He said to use a pot with not hole in the bottom.  Do not use potting soil.  Heavy clay based soil would work just fine.  Put small gravel on the top of the soil to help keep the soil in the pot.  Set them on the bottom in 2 to 3 feet deep water.  Each month put aquatic fertilizer tabs embedded into the soil near the edge of the pot.  We live in central Texas so we do not have to worry about our ponds freezing over in the winter.  The lilies just loose all their leaves and go dormant then come back in the spring and bloom from June through September. 

  Don’t make the mistake we did.  We added a poultry house to our place with chickens and 4 Mallard ducks.  They were small when we got them and pretty much stayed to their pond but as they grew and started exploring they found our back pond. We had aeration plants and a water lily that had not been blooming.  They started first just nipping the leaves a little at a time then they jumped in and ate all the leaves off the lily and all the water plants. Right away we found them a new home before they found out front pond, thank goodness. The chickens have not been as destructive even to the flowerbeds.  They scratch around some but have not yet hurt a plant. 

In my research I have found there are mainly two basic types of water lilies, Hardy and Tropical.  I think both of mine are Hardy.  I didn’t know when I got them I would be writing about them so I did not keep the names.  I do know they bloom only in the daytime.  Some bloom only at night. 

Hardy water lilies should be planted in large pots using heavy garden soil and 1 aquatic fertilizer tab per gallon of soil.  Do not use potting soils.  Fill your pot to near the top of you pot.  Some use kitty litter and play sand mixed 50/50 for potting soil.  I have not tried this.  Fill in around the rhizome that should be near the surface of the soil.  Don’t forget to add the aquatic fertilizer tabs as suggested above.  Fill in around the plant with soil and firm in.  Top with pea gravel leaving the top of the rhizome exposed slightly.  Water till water sets on the top.  Then lower into the pond, a bit shallow at first till the leaves start growing then down to no deeper than 3 feet.

If your transplanting (which you should do once every two years) wash the roots and cut in sections where there are some roots and some limbs in each section.  Place them in new pots about 2/3 full of heavy soil with the cut sides next to the side of the pot and the roots spread out.  Fill in around the rhizome and finish as described above.

Tropical Water Lilies are planted the same way except place the tropical in the center of the pot and leave more of the rhizomes exposed.

Fertilize all water lilies at least once a month during the growing and blooming seasons.

Water lilies help control the algae.  There is good and bad algae.  Most is good.  A healthy pond has to have some algae.  But too much of either can green up your water where you cannot see your fish.  Some algae can confine your fishes swimming area.   We got the green stringy algae this spring. Someone suggested we ad barley hay in the pond to slow down the stringy moss. This can be bought at water garden centers.  They also have barley tablets that I hear are quite expensive.  The best way to control it is to pull as much as you can out by hand and be patient.  Once things start really warming up it will go away by itself.  This doesn’t mean it will not come back.  To help not have, so much, algae is to have your pond in, at least, a semi-shady area or have lots of surface covering plants like water lilies.