| Before we begin, there are a couple of things you should know about waterlilies. First, waterlilies grow from a tuber, so when you pot or report a waterlily, there will be a dead end and a growing tip. The part you need is the growing tip, or usually about 2-3 inches of the growth end of the tuber. The rest you can discard. Secondly, waterlilies grow across the top of the potting medium, not down into the potting medium. They will therefore do better in a shallow, wide pot (shaped more like an oil pan) than a tall, narrow pot (shaped like a top hat). If you do pot your waterlilies in a tall, narrow pot, be prepared to repot them in the very near future, as they will send their tubers over the edge, and you will have a pot that only anchors the dead end of the waterlily growing outside of the pot in every direction. Thirdly, waterlilies (not unlike lotus) do best in a soil based planting medium. I prefer clay soil, as it is abundant, low in organic materials, and FREE (my favorite four-letter-word). Potting your waterlilies in pea gravel or river rock is not the best course of action for these plants, and you will regret it when you try to shove a plant tab into the pot later. |
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Yes, this is all one GIANT waterlily tuber. We were called in to clear out some of the plants that had taken over a shallow, rock-bottom pond and this is part of what we found.
That's Paula hoisting the heavy-weight up for the picture (everybody say "Hi, Paula!"), and yes, she's really smiling. Digging around in all that fish poo and goo, who wouldn't be smiling? But that's not why I show you this picture. In the picture, you can clearly see the growth tip of the tuber in her right hand (above her hand), and everything below her hand is the dead part of the tuber. In her left hand, she holds the roots of the other growing tip and everything below that and all the way into the water is dead tuber. Dead tubers will rot in your pond and foul the water. Of course, if you never repot your waterlilies, you may never know how bad a rotting tuber can smell, but trust me, it's not something you want in your pond. When your fish get sick and succumb to bacterial infections, parasites or fungus, nine times out of ten it's because the water quality has been compromised. (The other one time in ten that your fish succumb to illness is due to the introduction of sick or infected fish into your system.) Decomposing organic materials also feed algae blooms, so it's important to remove dead plant material from your pond regularly. |
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