Tom's Life Bits

By Carol Stein
'Are those flowers real or plastic?“

John Wyman says he often gets that question from visitors viewing the waterlilies he cares for as a volunteer expert at Duke Gardens.

The mammoth Longwood Victoria waterlilies, with pads more than five feet across, seem to raise the most skepticism. Native to the tropics, Victoria waterlilies aren't feasible for the average water gardener – the plant requires a 20- to 50-gallon pot and a pool that allows it to spread up to 40 feet in one summer. Oh, and it has to move indoors in winter.

But, home gardeners can have a real waterlily growing on the patio or even a tabletop. Tamara Kilbane, a Duke Gardens horticulturist who cares for aquatic plants recommends 'Lindsay Woods' as a beautiful small tropical with purple blooms. She also favors 'Helvola' for light yellow flowers and 'Perry's Baby Red' for its dark pink blooms. Kilbane says that these varieties are miniature hardies that can be grown in small containers.

Wyman recommended 'Blue Dauben' (N. Daubenyana), which, he said, can grow to any size based on sun, space, fertilizer and pot size. “I've grown this one inside my home for the winter and placed it outside in my pond and had it grow to great size,” he said.

A tropical day-blooming waterlily, Blue Dauben's flowers open early in the morning and bloom until evening. Because it reproduces by growing tubers for next season, Blue Dauben should be taken indoors before water temperatures go below 60 degrees in the fall. Store the tubers indoors in a 5-gallon pot of moist peat. Next spring pot up the tubers and add them to the water garden when outdoor water temperatures warm up to between 72 and 80 degrees.

Hardy waterlilies, such as the Helvola or Perry's Baby Red are easier to care for in outdoor situations. In my in-ground fish pond, I've had great luck with my hardy lilies coming back year after year. A waterlily garden is fairly low-maintenance. In my garden, my husband cleans the filter on the recirculating pump that shoots a low jet of water out of a stone frog's mouth. Submerged aquatic plants add oxygen and filter impurities, and a few small goldfish control mosquito larvae. Water gardens also attract frogs, toads, lizards and birds to eat airborne insects.

Want to grow your own waterlilies? We tell you how.

In the meantime, please don't add any plastic waterlilies – they can't hold a candle to the real deal.

Carol Stein
Container. Begin by selecting the container to hold the water garden. Half barrels (sometimes called whiskey barrels) are a traditional choice. An all-weather alternative is a preformed half barrel liner found in the pond supply section in garden centers. Ceramic containers are another option, but they are subject to damage during freezing weather, so protect them if the water garden can't be brought indoors or into a protected area in winter.

Water. Fill the water garden with fresh tap water and allow it to stand several hours to allow chlorine and chemicals to dissipate. If you include goldfish (not koi – they eat waterlilies), any time you add water to maintain the water level, draw it into a bucket and allow it to stand for at least an hour before pouring it into the water garden. If your city adds chloramine to the water supply, liquid dechlorinators are available at most pet stores. Duke Gardens horticulturist Tamara Kilbane also likes to add a few drops of black dye (pond shade) to each water bowl to discourage algae growth and make the blooms stand out more. She says, “If you prefer clear water, Algaefix is a great product that is safe for fish and plants when used as directed.”

Plants & Pots. Choose the waterlily based on the size of the water garden. Use dwarf or miniature varieties for tabletop gardens. Each plant needs a pot of soil large enough for a growing root system but small enough to submerge into the water garden. For larger gardens, recycled quart or gallon plastic pots are good. In smaller gardens, plastic storage containers that are wider than they are tall do nicely. If the container has drainage holes, line with a layer of burlap before adding soil. Your goal is to find a pot that suits the plant, will stay submerged, and blends in so well that it's all but invisible above water level.

Fertilizer. Duke volunteer John Wyman follows a regular schedule using PondTabb fertilizer tablets (10-14-8). Beginning in late spring, he adds five PondTabbs per 5-gallon pot each month. In July and August, he increases the frequency to every two weeks, cuts back to one application in September, then stops fertilizing in October. The first application is at planting time.

Medium. A heavy growing medium with none of the usual potting soil fillers is needed. So – for a change – with waterlilies it's OK to use muddy clay. Wyman uses Piedmont clay, “which is in just about everyone's backyard here.” Fill the pot about three-quarters full with clay and add the fertilizer tablet(s) using Wyman's ratio (1 per 1 gallon of soil). Follow this step for either tropical or hardy varieties.

Planting a hardy waterlily. Remove old leaves and roots, leaving emerging buds and the newer, hairlike roots. Unlike tropical waterlily tubers that grow vertically, hardy waterlily rhizomes grow horizontally, so place them into the clay near one side of the pot with the growing tip pointed toward the center. Add enough clay to hold the roots in place. Top with a layer of pea gravel or small stones to keep the clay in place. Water the plant in well, soaking the pot thoroughly to settle and compact the soil. Sink the pot into the water garden gently, finding the correct depth for the lily pads to float to the surface. In deep water, you may need to set the pot on top of a couple of bricks to raise it to the right level.

After submerging a pot containing planting medium into a crystal clear water garden, there's always a period of time when the water gets murky. Don't panic. A healthy water garden is a living ecosystem, and just as in nature, when the balance of plants and animals is achieved, your waterlily garden will look natural and lovely.