Water Gardening: Just bought my first water lily, 1 by baileykat

baileykat wrote:
Hi All....!

After much contemplation, finally bought it online. Will be here in a couple of days from now, unless if the seller decided to ship it next monday instead.
Now, what should I have on hand to prepare for its arrival? It'll be shipped bare root.
Currently, my half barrel pond has 6 water hyacinths, 1 gal. pot of horsetail plant, and 2 small goldfish.
Will the water lily need to be planted in a pot with soil and all, just like the horsetail? I bought the horsetail a little while ago in a local nursery, so it came in a pot and all, and I I gotta do just put them in the barrel. So, this will be my first attempt planting a water plant.
What kind of soil should I use? I know that there's soil especially for water plant, the one that won't cloud the water. Any suggestion which one? How do I plant this thing? Put the soil in first, insert plant, etc, never done this before, so I really have no clue how to do this.
Just want to be ready so once the water lily gets here, I'll have things prepared.
One dumb question, I can't just put the water lily in the barrel without soil, can I?
Thank you very much for all your tips and suggestions!

Here's a picture of my barrel at the moment....