Forgot to say, I don't have fish at this time. Perhaps in the future, but I have a racoon family on my property.

i plant in gravel. there are so many nutrients in the pond to feed the lilies, i find soil unnecessary, personally.

Thanks for your reply. You speak of nutrients in the pond, even w/o fish?? And are you speaking of peagravel or that coarse 3/4" gravel?

i go to hd and buy a bag of 3/4 gravel.use the larger size so the koi wont swallow any stones.i also dont feed my water plants any fertilizer,my water is gin clear.

I don't think you even need holes in the bottoms of your pots. They can actually grow out of the holes and go where you don't want them to go.

No holes in pots and I use basic clay kitty litter, the cheap stuff from walmart. Works swimmingly :)

I also use 3 gallon dish tubs from walmart to plant them in. $1.99 IIRC

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:229956}}

Forgot to mention walmart sells them in black.

Hi
have never found a way they won't grow except maybe dry lol. So the ?? becomes what does best. I use oil dri or turface much more stable than litter and is actually cheaper . I find that by using plug ferts I can control the size of both the flowers and the pads Can go from 4 inch to 14 inch flowers standing two feet out of the water. Pads will range from 4 /24 inhces
Those grown unpotted will remain under 6 inches . So take notes and find what works for you?? They are incredibly adaptable!!! gary

I use kitty litter in plastic lined pots, with fert tabs. Lilies are huge!

Shalom - batting and pea gravel and river rock combinaton; use job tomato spikes as fertilizer - this year has been the best ever for the lillies. I grow all my plants in gravel/batting; Iris, Dragon Tail, Verigated Chamelon, pickerl rush, horse tail, impatiens, hosta, marigolds, five star ground cover, several other annulas,plus a couple more aquatic perrenials

NO holes for me and clay garden soil with gravel on top. I have tried pea gravel, kitty litter and Schultz Aquatic Soil and plain old garden dirt has done far better for me with waterlilies. Many more blooms and bigger growth. They struggle for me in gravel.

I do grow everything else in pea gravel though in mesh pots.

Well, I ended up using the clay soil. Since you all said "no" to the holes in the pots, I lined the pots with weed block fabric. Added the clay mixed in a bit of pea gravel, then covered each with about an inch or so of pea gravel. It has turned out well. Easy to add fertilizer tabs and NO escaping silt from the clay because of the pea gravel. Couldn't be happier! Thanks so much for all of your replies!

Patti

My lillies do great in a 50/50 mixture of sand (playbox sand from Home Depot) and topsoil for my lillies. I also push a couple of fertilizer tabs down into the soil to feed them.

How do you keep the koi from pulling the plants out of their containers? I had beautiful waterliles and the koi pulled them out and ate them. Now my pond water is green with algae.