i have one lily (an almost black) and it covers almost my entire preform (150gallons) it definitely has more than 7 pads and it usually has one or two blooms at all times during its season so far. there are more prolific bloomers like the james brydon water lily but i dont know about their pads if i had to take a wild guess i would say mine has about 20 pads on it right now

What size is your pond? Because of the nature of hardy lily growth, you end up with many plants in each individual pot. When this happens, you have more surface coverage. Lilies need to be divided every couple of years. Blooms depend on the individual variety of lily - some bloom more frequently than others. I have a 1,500 gallon pond and have 7 individual lilies on the bottom and 3 or 4 shelf lilies. This year, because everyone was repotted, my surface coverage is only at about 50%. Next year, it will be more and the following year I will divide the plants again.

Jan

I have a 2000 gallon pond. and have only 1 individual lilly i was looking into buying some more but was unsure how many to get. I was thinking 3 more lilly pots and some some floating plant like 2 hycinths (sp?) to cover the surface. Think thats enough or should I get some more. Surface area is about 5'x5' maybe less.

Hi
hardies must be very different than tropicals as in my 5x10 pool I have only two "Blue goddess" and "king of Siam." I have to constantly remove pads as they stack up even growing over the sides. I remove at least 10 plants per week of the water hyacinth as well as several handsful of marestail. Only time they slow down is during winter and then only is the temps fall consistantly below 50.
A LOT of maintenence!!! lol gary

Hardy waterlilies do not just produce 1-2 blooms and 5-7 pads.

Some grow bigger than others, some bloom better too but that is still a really low estimate.

I would think 3-4 more hardies would be fine for you. Since you are just starting out, I would suggest you read up on the different kinds of hardies and then get what you will be happy with. Over the years I have purchased and gotten rid of many different kinds of hardies. Found the best bloomers to be Mayla and Colorado with Peach Glow and Joey Tomocik right up there. My Red Spider doesn't put out that much in the way of pads but gives a good number of blooms. Arc 'en Ciel has beautiful multi colored pads but is not that great in the flowering department. Tropical lilies tend to put out larger pads and give more surface coverage but in my area are seasonal and I have never had luck trying to over winter them.

Jan