wintering tropical lilies

OK
I kill them every year
I bring them in the GH and try to keep them semi dormant and....they die

HOW do I winter these suckers over
Dig them up
dry it?
HHHHEEEELLLLPPPP
they are still blooming but the water is cold......

ahah, here's some notes on wintering tropical waterlilies...

When the foliage withers as colder waters arrive.... extend finger, embed it where the foliage came out of the pot and winkle the tubers out that have formed, these are often two or three inches down in the mud.

Don't be surprised if there are half a dozen hard round tubers an inch or so in size to be found where a strong growing plant faded... Where there was a single plant that barely got going, you might have a single well formed tuber to find (sometimes trops set about making a tuber, and not flowering much)

Most effective hmmm,
At around the 80% mark, plonk trop lily pot in tub of water, in a well lit window indoors, there is a slight risk of the water going off with the few bits of debris decomposing spoiling the water and rotting the trop lily. At a steady 70°f and with the odd water change the survival rate is close to 100%

I quite like this method, plants come through in Spring nice and strong as light levels naturally increase. One fret, they seem to whittle down to a tiny size through a lot of Winter, that can be slightly worrying

At about the 80% to 90% survival rate, collect tubers and store in slightly damp peat in a pot... between 60°f to 70°f ...Probably the easiest way to keep them. I'm beginning to like this method for when a tropical has produced a lot of surplus tubers and there is not the space to put them in tubs of water.

Weighing in at near 100% survival rate, yank the carefully lifted trop waterlily from it's pot before it fades... float it in a tray of water with strip lights just over them. At 70°f they grow at a quite sedate size and pace, higher temperatures would be likely to get them going too lanky... Slight downside, if there are too many tubers they are likely to become a tangly thing to separate when Summer returns... No biggy, though I can well imagine some varieties could be a knot of fragile stems

Keeping trops through Winter is a lot more bothersome than hardies.... They can be quite touch and go to get started again outdoors, some just fizzle out after barely surviving indoors. Some varieties are defintely hit or miss, while others such as Woods White Knight, Tina, Mrs GC Hitchcock are reliable as clockwork

Ummm, if you mention what varieties you lift as tubers, bear in mind it's much easier to trades of spare tubers through Winter rather than wait until next Spring... I'm lifting Tina, Wood's White Knight, Mrs GC Hitchcock, Red Flare, St Louis Gold, Niemi's Opal, Islamorada, Dauben, Ruby, Black Prince in the next few weeks, though what spares there will be remain to be seen (If anyone is interested in trades, let me know)

Regards, andy


This message was edited Oct 17, 2004 3:23 AM

so you're saying just unearth the whole plant,float it in a container with floresent lights?
Gotta find somewhere that stays 70?

Last year my husband built an above ground pool for my tropicals. He built a low frame over it and we enclosed it with greenhouse film. We heated the pool with a propane heater during the coldest nights and they continued to bloom through the winter. I didn't heat the water, but the transfer of heat from air to water seemed to be enough to keep them going. We live in the south, so our winters seldom get below 18 degrees. Cold enough to kill the tropicals but not the hardies. I would like to try pulling some rhizomes to over winter in damp sand. Has anyone tried to do that?

Adavisusis is correct about the tubers as the easiest way to overwinter TW Remove the little corms, dust with a fungicide, and store in a ziplock baggie in barely damp sand. Store in a cool, dark place. Apparently in the wild the dry season causes them to do something similar and this assures survival. When the rain comes the corms sprout. When you begin having consistent weather in the spring of 70F day and evening you can get a kiddie wading pool and pot them up to sprout. To get a jump you can get an aquarium heater to warm the water. You can still float the plants if you want. All of your corms will probably not sprout the next spring and some will rot. This past summer was especailly tricky here. I am no expert but this is how a friend of mine does it who is a serious water gardener with just about every waterlily and lotus out there does it. She also quits fertilizing in September to encourage corm formation, the plant thinks it dying and starts producing corms. They still bloom until frost. If you have viviparous waterlilies or baby plants around the end of August or September pot them up in a very small pot, place in a kiddie pond and don't fertilize. You should get corms from them. The corms vary in size to an acorn up to a small egg. I've heard that the corms produce the best plants the following season. They should be firm in the spring when you give them a light squeeze between you thumb and forefinger. Hope this gives you another option especially if space in the greenhouse is an issue.



This message was edited Oct 27, 2004 11:40 PM

I'd like to thank you all for you input
Sorry I am not on very much anymore
Life keeps getting the the way

here are pictures of my tropicals
I had tears in my eyes pulling them up
The one that I have babied all summer has its first bud...
soooo sad

The one in the pot just doesent quit blooming
Don't know if there is a corm in there or not
The one with the bud and the one with red leaves both have corms
Now
questions

If I put the one thats still in a pot in a larger pot that holds water,keep it at 70 and with good lighting will it be OK?
Or should I unpot it and float it?

The 2 I unpotted
Do I remove all the leaves and roots or try to get them to die back on their own,if I'm saving the corms only?
Its in the 30's at nite
50's daytime
so I know its too cold outside for them
I have an aquarium with a floresent light.55 gallon with guppies in it
can I float them in there?

Again

HHHHEEEELLLLPPPPPPPP

I;m try the tubers in damp sand thing.

Any special kind of sand or just SAND
Is peat better?

also
can I take the corms off and float the remaining plant? Will it grow WITHOUT the corm????