OK, I'm not good with water stuff. I have several hardy waterlilies. They have outgrown their pots. There is no soil left in the pot, it's all roots and the plant wants to "float". These are huge and there are roots sticking out everywhere. If I get the 'oil pans' that TiG mentioned, can I repot them now? They are still blooming, but the stalks are very short because the plant is floating.
repotting waterlilies
Cala, Yes!! From what I've read and done, there's a few very simple rules. When you struggle them out of the pot, simply separate each tuber. Make sure there's a few leaves on each one. The most important thing is not to plant the tuber too deep. The top must be peeking out through the top of the pot. Obviously you know this because your lily has grown. You can always set the lily higher in the water until you see new growth and then drop down deeper gradually.
I separated my lily late last summer and it did just fine.
"T"
Thanks Sledder. Yes, when I bought the lilies they were bare root. They had instructions for planting, but that was all.
If the lily has too many tubers or you don't have enough "dish pans", I've used just plain black plastic pots like you'd have at the greenhouse. (about 6-8 in. diameter) They work just fine. Now granted, they need separated more often but it works in a pinch. The hardest part is getting it out of the pot. Those roots sure do fill a pot up. And it's not like you can turn it upside down very easily because you have these lily pads going everywhere. lol I always end up cutting away the pots.
Cala, if it's one huge tuber, you can cut with a sharp knife and leave one tip on each part. Put the cut part up next to the side of the pot. you ain't gonna enjoy this, sorry!!! washing the soil away from the tuber is my least favorite job of anything. I wind up gray from the clay (or red, depending on what's in the pot)
tiG, you're right!! It's not easy.
I don't think there's any soil at all left in these pots. It's one huge root ball. They were planted in 8 inch pots 2 years ago!! I'm a bad plant mommy.
Cala, I don't think you can be a bad plant-mommy to water lilies. They are hardy children and only need water and food. I hadn't repotted mine for years, so they jumped out of the pots and grew into the sludge on the bottom of the pond. It was wonderfully soft to walk on their roots but pure h*ll to get them out of the pond as they were heavy and huge. I just cut off a few of the growing ends and potted them. (and vowed not to leave them so long next time) We hauled away about 3 large wheel barrow loads of lily.
Calla,You can go to the Dollar store and get dish pans,thats what most of mine are in......
CC, I was just thinking of doing that!! They have the round ones for $2.
I just replanted some dwarf cattails and sweetflag in those ,they worked great