Hardy Water Lily, Waterlily 'Colorado'

Hardy Water Lily, Waterlily 'Colorado'
Nymphaea

This is one plant in about 3 gallons of pot.

Wow ---
My Colorado is blooming but only one bloom at a time (even tho it does get a fair amt of sun). Do hardy lillies need lots of soil? Maybe that's my problem - I only have it in a fairly shallow pot.
thanks in advance for any advice
jo

How do Jo;
Looks like yours is a big happy plant, as the flower is standing out.
I find that 'Colorado' benefits from division to keep the eyes large. (removing plantlets that take vigour from the big blooming eyes) I also notice that it's a hungry son of a gun, and does well with fortnightly fertilizing with pond-tabs. (15-5-10) Fertlizing makes a tremendous difference. Huge. Soil's importance is to keep the silly (high bouyancy) thing attached to the bottom of the pond, so keeping the roots happy has more to do with fertilizer. My 3-gallon pot allows me to stick in a couple fertilizer tabs to fully deliver the nutrients.

It also grows pretty large, and I think is best accomodated in a deep pond (which I haven't) so it can spread out to its full 6' glory. In a pond like mine that has more lilies (who all want nutrients) than fish to naturally provide that, fertilizing is essential. It is like non-aquatic plants in pots. Pots restrict how far the roots can go for nutrients. In a perfect world, we would all have mud-bottom ponds!

Sun: a waterlily will bloom with 4 hours of sun or so, but maximum blooms come with a position that has no sun-obstructions, like a person needs for a veg garden with tomatoes. moreliek 6-8 hours of sun.

I Hope this helps, Kenton

New to me, the changeable 'Paul Hariot.' (day 1)

Thanks so much for helpful response, Kenton. Unfortunately, all my pond-tabs have disintegrated in this moist Ga air.... Any ideas as to how I can still use them? Or do I just get some more. Maybe I need to store 'em in the fridge rather than in a plastic tote-thing on the side porch. LOL

My pond is so tiny, only 250 gallons or so, but I just love the water lillies. And cannas. Have lots of goldfish - free fertilizer (I clean the pump filters in a bucket and use it on everything that isn't already in the pond!)

Oh - I just found a lily in a tiny pot in the bottom of my little pond, that I completely forgot about. Not sure what it is since I had several ones that I gave up for dead. Can't wait to see. Even if it's just an occasional bloom once in a while, these lilies are so beautiful that they're worth it.

jo

Jo, My pond is barely any larger than that! In fact, it is no pond at all, it is a horse trough! I love that they love heat, which is what we have a lot of here, and it does not agree with most garden plants.

Are the tabs like crumb? If they have any slight moisture, you could (wearing latex gloves) put biuts into plastic baggies and freeze them.
When I fertilize, I like help. One hand to lift the pot, one hand to poke a hole, and my help to hand me a dry tab to poke in before they dsiintegrate. Wet hands in the fert tab bottle is no good!
Goldfish will provide continued fertilizer, but one needs a heck of a lot of fish to supply the full dose to hungry Waterlilies!

What odes your mystery lily look like when it blooms occasioanlly?
K

Hi K - u still there?

Am doing better with my Colorado's this year. And yes, I did fertilize them (need to do it again tho). We're really in the forest here, get very little direct sun. In fact, I can't think of a single spot on our entire 2.5 acres where there's total sun. But like all plants, these beauties will give it all they got.

We put in a new somewhat larger pond this year. A huge splurge but worth it. And this one is in the sunniest spot we got! I have a beautiful Barbara Dobbins there.

Oh, mystery lily turned out to be another Colorado. I forgot I had bought it!