|
Mon, Jun 14, 10 at 11:42
| I didn't know this was possible.
One of my water lilies has been getting bigger and bigger and more beautiful over the years but suddenly last week exploded in growth. Throwing up lots and lots of those cords that attach the pad to the root ball, and those cords are all over the surface of the pond. So.. I was vacuuming the pond anyway, and decided to reach in there and pull out some of the anachris out from under the water lily cause I was having a hard time vacuuming near the water lily pot. The water lily root ball is on TOP of the pond! Not in the pot! How did this happen? And it's HUGE. I want to pull it out and put it in my top pond, so I can divide it and repot later when I have more time, but I can't even pull a quarter of it over the pond edge. How did this happen? How do I prevent it? Have you ever heard of this? I'm going to have to take pictures, but can't tonight cause I've got to tutor my bro in chemistry. |
Follow-Up Postings:
|
- Posted by catherinet z5 (My Page) on Mon, Jun 14, 10 at 12:51
| I have a water lily growing just on the surface of the water too. I put it there on purpose as an experiment. I guess it shows that waterlilies don't need to be in pots. Sounds like yours is happier living on the surface! You could cut the part of the tuber off that you can reach and start it somewhere else. (you are talking hardy lily, right?). I'm thinking your lily outgrew its pot and started growing elsewhere. You better warn your neighbors. haha |
|
- Posted by cweathersby NE TX 7b/8a (My Page) on Mon, Jun 14, 10 at 14:15
 This pic was taken 2 weeks ago. This was back when the water lily looked normal. See how the lily pads are floating on top of the surface? |
|
- Posted by chemgeekponder (My Page) on Wed, Jun 16, 10 at 6:20
| All winter I had a mass of roots frozen in the pond ice. I was going to retrive the mass of roots once the ice melted, and throw it away, but Spring arrived very quickly, and before I could retrive it, it was putting out lily pads! It's been floating on the pond surface since then, and is blooming better than it ever did in a pot. |
|
- Posted by catherinet z5 (My Page) on Wed, Jun 16, 10 at 8:31
| This would be a very easy way to deal with lilies! It would be great to not have to pull out that big tub to divide or overwinter. I wonder how this would do over several years? Sometimes plants (at least trees do this), put out tons of seeds when they start to get stressed. (Like they somehow know they might not be around much longer, and need to get out all the babies they can). |
|
- Posted by cweathersby NE TX 7b/8a (My Page) on Thu, Jun 17, 10 at 10:21
| Posting some pics of this monstrosity that I pulled out of the pond! It took me and an 18 year old strong boy to pull it out- and we had to yank off roots forever before we could even do it. He had to get under it and push it out of the pond. He also found the pot I originally planted it in. It didn't look overgrown, matter of fact, there isn't much growing in there at all. He put the pot back in the pond, but I don't know if the water lily will grow back. Here's what we pulled out: A top view
|
|
- Posted by cweathersby NE TX 7b/8a (My Page) on Thu, Jun 17, 10 at 10:50
At one point my brother started asking about these "octopus things" coming off the water lily. They were touching his legs in the pond. He pulled them up and they looked like this:  Is that part of the root? There were lots of them in there. Thank goodness it didn't touch my leg! I would have flipped out! |
|
- Posted by catherinet z5 (My Page) on Thu, Jun 17, 10 at 12:13
| I think those are tubers. You could cut those up and get more plants (if you wanted to). haha Sounds like you have enough. What was the name of the lily? How big is your pond? |
|
- Posted by cweathersby NE TX 7b/8a (My Page) on Thu, Jun 17, 10 at 12:59
| Actually, I may go ahead and pot them. I have no idea what the lily's name was. I bought 10 or so and put them in when the pond was built. Of those 10, I think there are only 3 left. And of those 3, this one was the only one with more than one or two lily pads! Now that this one has been pulled out, there is only a couple of lily pads for my fish to hide under! This monster used to take up 1/3 of the surface area on an 18' by 18' pond. I need to find all those old pots in there where the lilies are dead and put the tubers in them. I don't want more pots sitting at the bottom providing a place for leaves and nasty stuff to gather! |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Ponds & Aquatic Plants Forum
Instructions
- You must be a registered member and logged in to post messages on our forums.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review the contents and make changes.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- It is illegal to post copyrighted material without the owner's consent.
- HTML codes are allowed in the message field only.
- No advertising is allowed in any of the forums.
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.