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clm
05-03-2007, 10:27 AM
Water lily pads have broken the surface :grin: Amazing how fast they grow up through 3 feet of water. One pad has a few chunks out of it, so I know the crayfish wintered over okay too.

I can see the lotus just starting to sprout, so at least I know it survived the winter.

All the plants in the planters around the pond ledge are up, except for the duck potato....I'm hoping it's just late.
Saw those water plants at Walmart that someone here had mentioned....I think they had bought 2 of the lilies, they also have black gamecock iris, a white iris and a few other marginal plants....they're all 9.99, so worth a shot if anybody wants any, hard to beat that price.....I paid a whole lot more than that for my black gamecock iris last week, mind you, mine is a few feet tall.

Instead of putting nothing but watercress in the bogs, I couldn't resist putting in a whack of other stuff too, a hardy water canna in each bog, the black gamecock iris in one bog and the traditional blue iris (which by the way, cost a small fortune for something that grows in the wild), and a rather pretty mauve one in the other, a hardy picture plant (too cool, have tried them in the pond before with no luck at all, hoping they prefer the bog), water celery of course a yellow button flowered plant (name escapes me), and watercress in both.
I know, I know, pictures, I don't work Fridays, so tomorrow will be a perfect day to take some pics. I want pictures of now and then once the bogs have filled in, the watercress should find it's way and completely cover the bogs right around he bases of all the other plants.
The hula hoop I had the hyacinths in last year has had netting strung across the bottom and watercress placed on top of it, it's growing like crazy. No hyacinths for me this year....I've decided to put my foot down and only have hardy pond plants from now on.....all except for one tropical canna that I already have in the pond and will be on frost watch now for a couple of weeks.

Cindy

Koidaddy
05-03-2007, 01:42 PM
Cindy, Wow!! Your plants must be on steroids - Mine are just begging to bud from the tuber.

KD
:grin:

Jackie Ramo
05-03-2007, 02:29 PM
Indeed, my lilies are barely sprouted and a few feet from the top of the water yet. I was just looking at Beck's catalogue last night eyeing the japanese iris... I have some that Charla sent me and some I bought. A bunch died over winter, the most expensive ones because I left them in the tub that was to be my veggies filter last year and may make it this year.

The marsh marigolds are blooming though. :yup:

clm
05-03-2007, 02:40 PM
I only buy the tough varieties of lilies, so they come up fast, Marliac (sp) white and yellow. Nothing fancy, but they grow like stink and bloom constantly. Never fertilize them either, I figure that's what the fish are for.

The lotus is what I'm dying to see come up. I was happy to see it made it over the winter. I'll feel better when I see it sending up some leaves. I got a couple of tubs to put more lotus in this year, but I'm using one as a q tub for my 3 new koi and may just keep the other as another q tub for some guppies....I want to add them to the bogs.
I'll have to venture out tomorrow and see what I can find for Lotus varieties at some of my pond places.

Cindy

Jackie Ramo
05-03-2007, 06:49 PM
Although I love the tropicals I try to stick to the hardy lilies. I wish there was a blue one. I will move some of the lilies to the new pond and into pots this year. One I thought dead is in fact alive so must get it out before the darn fish spawn on it again.

I'm trying to grow lotus from seed. At first they did so well but then entire type got wiped out, wasn't checking them since the seemed so happy and nothing but black mush left. The other drawf type was still hanging on so I potted those up today and put the heater back on. I have 5 more seeds on unknown varieties to start.

marla
05-10-2007, 01:15 AM
my plants are slow to come up also, but the warm weather has just started. This year with the clean out, I divided lilies and a lot of the first pads really got sun burnt, so they are taking a while, but the Attraction is getting pretty big, that one always does well.

clm
05-10-2007, 08:35 AM
I wonder if covering the pond for the winter helped they come up faster. I took the cover off before things warmed up totally, but it was warm enough that I had very little ice form on the pond at all after removal.

I'm with you Jackie, I would love it if someone would produce a hardy blue lily.

Cindy

Jackie Ramo
05-10-2007, 10:15 AM
My deepest lily now has leaves on the surface and the shallowest one, that needs moving does as well but the others are far behind and one seems eaten....

marla
05-11-2007, 01:36 AM
Cindy, covering it probably did keep the water warmer, that way the plants got an early start, even if you had a cold snap, I wouldn't think that should have slowed them up much. A blue hardy would be nice. I purchased a few tropicals this year, hope they do well and I can over winter them, otherwise, I'll be sticking with the hardies.

Jackie Ramo
05-11-2007, 09:11 AM
I've never be able to over winter the tropical lilies, they all rot.