Can anyone tell me how to over winter tender waterlilies indoors? Last year I pulled the tubers and put them in damp peatmoss in the refridgerator and this didn't work at all. What do you do with them to save them? I am in zone 4a and my pond is not deep enough not to freeze.
Over wintering WaterLilies Indoors
grikdog, I overwintered my water lilies in a fridge in the basement, in the vegetable bins with the fridge set on low. In the fall, before freezing, I pulled them up in their containers from the pond, packed them in damped peat moss in large ziplock freezer bags and sealed tightly! They kept in the veggie bins all winer in that fridge and in April, they were good to go, showing new green growth already and ready to plant back in the pond. They have thrived this summer. Plan to repeat the process this fall. Worked great! :)
I do the same, I lift my pails at the end of Sept and then put them in the spare fridge all winter, have done this for a few years and works for me,, and put them back in the pond in April,,
Wilma
you do this with Tropical water lilies?
Yep. Just puts them into forced dormancy for a few months. They come through with flying colors.
I guess I'll have to try it again. Maybe it was just bad luck. I'd really like to save the one I have this year because it is really a bloomer. I think it is called Texas Dawn. I had a beautiful pink one last year but it didn't throw up as many blossoms.
Good luck with it, grikdog. Remember to tightly seal the freezer bags and keep the fridge on "Low".
Texas Dawn is the name of a hardy water lily. You may want to confirm its identity before treating it like a tropical waterlily, you may well find it does not have a tuber.
Hardies are fine in the pond, if set below the freezing line. The crown can cope with near freezing conditions
Regards, andy
I want to try to take small divisions of mine and keep them living in my extra 30 gal aquarium.
I dont have enough refrig room for this method listed here :)
Overwintering in the fridge will *only* work with hardy water lilies (they have rhizomes....swollen roots). In zones 6 and higher it is doubtful that anyone would need to bring then in for the winter (if they are left under 18 inches of water). If your pond freezes to the level where the top of the pots are then they have to be brought in.
With tropical water lilies (they have a tuber......looks somewhat similar to a dark tulip bulb). I kept them in a cool spot in the basement and kept the sand consistantly damp and in the spring when new growth just appeared I floated the tuber in the aquarium (under lights) until the roots grew a few inches and then potted them up (and placed the pot in an aquarium in front of a window with lots of sunlight). Here it is a lot trickier to keep the tropicals happy for a prolonged period inside before they can be planted outside (water temperature has to be above 70F or they can go back into dormancy).
This message was edited Aug 10, 2005 12:15 PM
Who knew? I didn't know at the time when I got instructions for overwintering my water lilies whether they were Hardy or Tropical. I guess I can safely assume they were hardy because they came through with flying colors using the fridge method. Now that I know, I will have to check out the whether I have rhizomes or tubers. I have two different plants. In my zone, my pond is, according to sources here, deep enough to leave at the bottom of the pond. But with my luck, there would be some recordbreaking freak of a winter and I'd lose them. I feel safer just bringing them in.
This message was edited Aug 10, 2005 7:44 AM
Yours are a hardy Donna....I could tell by your description when both you and Wilma were asking me how to overwinter them:
"Whew!! I 'm so glad I asked! My printer's just ahummin' and I have been just areadin". Thanks for all the info, Lilypon. I was thinking also since I wrote earlier, that maybe I should build a waterfall kinda deal at one end of my pond using my original fountain pump device and big rocks, so that way it would take care of the aeration part of it while not disturbing my waterlilies too much. I would have to empty my pond to do so, but I think the plants need to be checked and redone anyway and then I thought I might just overwinter my plants and fish inside as you do. Everyone around here tells me I can overwinter everything outside just as the past owners have done, but I figure it might be better to be safe than sorry and then I could work on the pond until I have it the way I want it. Now to find GREAT BIG freezer bags and an old aquarium... Do you have any photos you could post of your pond?"
The majority of pond owners in Canada grow hardies because the tropicals sell for two to three times the price (of a hardy). And because they demand more overwintering and spring attention many that bought them treated the tropicals like an annual.
This message was edited Aug 10, 2005 10:19 AM
I don't know what zone a tropical water lily can be left outside. I know Trois (zone 9) grows them but I've never seen a post of his saying whether he brings his inside or not. I have a feeling that he *might* be able to leave his out.
This message was edited Aug 10, 2005 10:18 AM
Like I said earlier..."Who knew?" Not me!
Printer's runnin' again!
I think I've read that tropicals can be left out in zone 8 and up.
I tried the tuber method last winter...it worked for about 1/2 of mine but they took forever to put out again...especially the night bloomers. If I find any tubers I will surely keep them but I want to try something else this year too.
I keep my hardys in the pond all winter with no problems
Its the tender tropicals I need help with
I pay too much for them EVERY year to keep treating them as annuals
Yep given the tropical's price I can understand your feelings CC. The above was based on a couple of articles.......it said that the price of a tropical was comparable to a nice dinner out for one person (so even if you treated it like an annual you'd still have it for a whole summer vs. the enjoyment of a dinner that just lasts one evening). It certainly is possible to overwinter them (tho can be difficult for some varieties as Charlotteda stated) but not many are willing to do the work involved.
Like you I wanted my investment to last longer (I've only had two) so I overwintered mine (for two years.....the winter of the third year I didn't watch the tubers close enough). :(
Found this article that gives a couple of different methods for overwintering tropical water lilies.
Quoting:
Horticulture, The Art of American Gardening, Sept 1999 v96 i7 p30
Overwintering a Tropical Water Lily. (Brief Article) JANET H. SANCHEZ.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1999 PRIMEDIA Special Interest Publications
THE ROMANTIC, COLORFUL BLOSSOMS of tropical water lilies (Nymphaea spp.) add drama and fragrance to ponds in summer and early fall. Unlike hardy water lilies, tropicals are available in stunning shades of blue, violet, and purple, and many open their exquisite blooms in the evening. Yet since many of these plants are descended from water lilies native to South America, Mexico, Africa, and Asia, they will perish over the winter in all but the warmer parts of USDA Zones 9 and 10. While some gardeners treat them as annuals (and costly annuals at that), a little effort will allow you to overwinter them indoors by saving the dormant tubers.
To encourage the onset of dormancy, stop fertilizing your tropical water lilies six weeks before the first expected frost.
1. Retrieve the Tubers
As air and water temperatures cool, the leaves will turn yellow and die. After the first few frosts, or when the water temperature in your pond has dropped to 50[degrees]F, remove the plant from the pond. Tip the water lily out of its pot and hose off most of the soil. Check among and beneath the roots for the tubers, which will be hard and dark brown, and about the size of hickory nuts or walnuts. Snap them off with your fingers and put them in a shady, warm place to air dry for a few days. Remove any remaining pieces of root or stem.
2. Pack the Tubers in Sand
Full Size PictureFill a pail with clean builder's sand and moisten it with water. The idea is to just dampen the sand, rather than make it dripping wet. Fill a resealable plastic bag halfway with sand. Set the tuber on top of the sand and cover it completely with more sand. If you have multiple tubers, give each its own bag. Add plastic labels, marked with indelible ink, before sealing the bags (for future identification).
Store the bags in a cool, dark place, where the temperature ranges from 50[degrees] to 55[degrees]F. Do not let them freeze. Over the course of the winter, check the bags to make sure the sand remains damp.
3. Repot and Submerge the Tubers
Six weeks before your last expected frost, pot up each tuber in its own small, two-or three-inch pot of good topsoil, setting each about an inch deep. A thin layer of gravel over the top will help to keep the soil in place when the pot is submerged. Then set the pots in a large pail of water or in an aquarium. There should be three inches of water over the rim of the pots. Place the pail or aquarium in a sunny spot or under supplemental lighting. A water temperature of 70[degrees]F should stimulate growth; colder water will shock the plant and delay growth. You may need to use an aquarium heater to warm the water.
4. Pot up the Plantlets
After a few weeks, each tuber will produce one or more plantlets. When their leaves are large enough to float on the surface of the water, pot them up into four- or five-inch pots of clayey soil. (If you get more than one shoot, you can divide them and pot them individually.) Put the pots back in the pail or aquarium quickly so that the plants don't dry out.
5. Repot and Transfer to the Pond
When your pond has reached 70[degrees]F, repot each plant in a large container, such as a 19-quart water-lily pan, of heavy garden soil. Center the crown and keep it slightly above soil level. Tropical water lilies are heavy feeders; add a couple of fertilizer tablets specially formulated for water lilies. . Set the pan back in the pond with its rim 8 to 12 inches below the surface of the water. As the leaves grow and reach the surface, lower the tub to 18 inches.
OTHER METHODS Some tropical water lilies, such as `Dauben' (which is among the easiest to grow), are viviparous, producing tiny plantlets at the sinus, or center meeting point of a leaf's lobes. Once rooted, these plantlets can be potted up and overwintered in an aquarium. If you have the room, an alternative method practiced by many gardeners (and favored by the late Henry Mitchell) is to lift and save the entire plant after the first few frosts. Keep as much of the soil around the roots as possible and put the plant in a large waterproof tub. Trim off the old leaves and place the tub in a sunny southern window or in a greenhouse, covering the roots with six inches of water. Growth may not occur during the winter, but will pick up again in the spring. When your pond is warm enough, repot the water lily in fresh soil, fertilize it, and return it outdoors.--J.H.S.
Mag.Coll.: 101M4141
I posted this once before but some may have missed it.