I was able to wade into a lake and grab a few, with owners permission, I might add. I sunk them in 5 gallon buckets with a rock, added aquatic dirt (high priced kitty litter) and filled up with water. Can they live like this? Do I need to fertilize? If so what? I'm pretty new to this water gardening business. I was thinking of transferring them to a whiskey barrel and eventually a real pond in a year or more. So what do you think?
water lilies in 5 gallon bucket?
The five gallon bucket would work as a temporary home for this year but would be too small for the long term. Hardy lilies send out rhizomes in every direction and would soon be outgrowing that size of container. What I have used with great success over the long term is an aluminum cattle pool. The one that I have for my goldfish is about 18" deep and about 5' across. Since our winter weather can be severe I have buried it in the soil. The lilies and fish did very well without supplemental heat and the pond was frozen over for over a month last winter. In your climate I doubt that you have severe freezes so something like that would be an excellent choice for you.
As far as fertilizer is concerned a lot of people seem to really like the lily tabs that are specifically formulated for water lilies. I have also heard of using the fertilizer spikes made for flowering plants. What I have done is made little packets of fertilizer (about a tablespoon each) that I have folded up in a cheapie paper towel and pushed under the surface of the soil in various spots in the pot. The cheapie paper towels disintigrate pretty rapidly making it easier for the lily to have access to the fertilizer.
Sorry Tetley for not responding to your above post. We are in the middle of building a house (hence the year delay in planting) and have had a rather stressful couple of weeks.
So you think that what I have done so far will allow the lilies to live, at least temporarily? So far they are surviving, however a green scum collects on the surface. Not sure was that is, I just add more water until it gets flushed out. I'm also adding water because I don't want mosquito's to breed in the buckets. They have been in full sun, should I put them in shade?
Thanks,
Melanie
The green scum you see on the water is probably algea and is normal. You are right to flush the pots to keep the mosquitos out it also keeps the water fresh so that the lily tubers do not rot.
Mel: Keep doing what you are doing with the flushing of water. Also, lilys like full sun. Don't worry too much about next year. My pond is new as of Dec of 2007 and this spring was the first time I water gardened and had koi. I learned a lot about both in a very short time from people here on this site. I also was donated plants (via the mail) for my pond (from Daves garden people) that got me started off nicely for the summer. There also was this excellent water lily co-op here on Daves that I purchased lillys from $5-6.00 each that normally cost $30-50 each. It was an excellent purchasing opportunity and the plants are doing great in the pond (they were very big and healthy). Some of my lilys are getting so big already that I can see I might have to divide them up next year (if they do well over the winter) and maybe can send you some just like the other people here did for me! Nothing like "playing it forward".
Linda