How do I save my water hyacinths?

Does anyone know how to over winter water hyacinths,I was recently given 5 of them,I live in Wis.so what can I do to save tem for next year?Please help if anyone knows. Thanks,Rene

Rene, I have tried several times to winter these and water lettuce over in the basement in a wading pool under grow lights with a small pump running. I saved buckets of pond water to add for evaporation because I thought maybe the chlorine in our city water was the problem. I haven't had any luck. Within a month or two the plants are a mess- mushy, yellowed or blackened foliage- not worth keeping. I hate to throw them in the compost by the wheelbarrow load at the end of the season but don't know what else to try.They do multiply well once the weather warms up so I only have to buy about 5 of each but it irks me to remember the ones I threw away!! MW

I haven't had any luck trying to winter them either. Since they're so abundant in the south I usually try to trade for new ones each spring.

Sorry but there isn't any way I've found yet, I sure would like to know, If anyone can give us a clue it would be wonderful.
Ann

We had water hyacinths the first year of our water garden. They are so beautiful but our koi ate them. We now have 3 different kinds of floating plants (I have no clue what they are) but we have to keep them caged. They must be very hardy as I just put them in 5 gallon buckets of water under a grow light over the winter and they do fine. We have a shelf around 3 sides of the water garden for our other plants and these go into galvanized tubs in the winter under grow lights. There must be a way to overwinter them but if the pool, light, and aquarium filter don't save them I don't know what else you could do. The plants do look very tired in the spring when I put them out but seem to perk up when they get the fresh air - maybe that's the secret ingredient :-)

Thanks to everyone who gave me some information on the water hyacinths,I really appreciate it. Thanks,Rene

I was in the Lily Pad in Cashiers, NC today and asked the same question. The owner is very knowledgeable. She said the main problem is they need warmth. If you are in an area of power outages during the winter, they will die. She said she knew someone who had used those little heating coils you can buy for coffee cups and kept her water hyacinth alive with that. She also suggested that keeping them on top of a water heater, or a refrigerator, maybe above a radiator, might work if there is sufficient light