A few bloomers

[fishin4cars]

I was just curious and would like to see a shot with ALL those lilies. Never mentioned anything about reselling anything. I've seen your pics on many forums and each one definetly has it's own beauty. I'm thinking I might be able to keep 8-10 different types in my pond. I know some you keep get very large and just wondered how much space it takes to keep that many water lilies and full size mature plants as well. I've never seen a shot from single tub garden or small pond.

 

[adavisus]

Somehow, I doubt umpteen or so ponds will fit on one photo. Some I grow out to blooming size, but don't push size.

On some ponds waterlilies are grown to a blooming size, this year I have one Gorgon plant with 40" pads while usually they are bonsai'd at less than a foot wide. It's fairly easy to tweak size but not realistic to allow waterlilies to become overgrown

 

[j.w]

You could show us a few of your ponds in different photo's

 

[adavisus]

I posted pond views in the past, I don't think anyone noticed them.

Drought and excessive heat knock the ponds about currently, I won't be taking many pond view photos until Summer cools off and better blooms come through and then only to figure out what ponds need renovating and what needs to be shuffled about for Winter

 

[j.w]

Did you post them here or on another forum?
I'll look forward to seeing yours when the weather cools off

 

[adavisus]

One was posted in 'introductions' a view of a typical lilypond which I call the 'Batpond'

During excessive heat, turtles turn up from droughting ponds and chow down on stems. When waters cool, blooms and pads are less scorched, better blooms come through, orphaned lilypads cleared out (and turtles evicted) that is better timing to shoot hardy and tropical lilies in pristine condition

These two darlings certainly relished umpteen too many bloomers in July. Fortunately the trusty turtle trap put an end to that. Two down, maybe one to go. For scale, there's a one inch wide pole next to the snapping turtles head

 

[adavisus]

This pond is waiting for old pads to be cleared out, surplus lilies shuffled to other ponds, to make mind up which ones I want to photograph when the weather cools off, in time for better blooms to come through for presentable shoots.

Excessive 100's heat has hung around. Right now it's a muddle as too many blooming lily positions were started up and culling the spare lily positions is put off until it is cooler

There's a new pond next to this one and I have the pleasant task figuring which of the bigger lilies to move over to the larger, deeper empty pond, currently used for snorkelling in the heat. I just might be selfish and keep it for my own leisurely cruises on an inflatable. Decisions, decisions.

Note how some turtle has chowed down on Star of Siam pads, time to get the turtle trap out...

I'm letting the gorgon's pads fade out naturally, to see what remnants are left of its spikes

 

[j.w]

My oh my that's a pretty big snapper! He could take a finger or two off! The other one looks a bit more friendly and docile.
You've got quite a collection of lilies it looks like in that one pond and it looks pretty large. Are these all natural or man made ponds? Sounds like a full time job moving and keeping track of what's where. And you must be constantly trying to get different varieties to grow the colors you want etc. Must be nice to be able to choose what you want to do w/ them all either for fun, hobby or business

 

[adavisus]

On that pond intended for 25 blooming positions am comparing how one fertiliser mix affects the colour of blooms using comparable pots and fertiliser mix. Whups, best intentions aside, plonked 40 plus in there. Hohum.

So far, by colour sampling shots on same camera of same plants grown without fertilising, it seems a 10% gain in colour intensity is doable. Might like to find way to improve on that.

Some conclusions are an eye opener, comparing single tubers with single sprouts set out, certain fancy schmancy hybrids are very poor performers barely doing one bloom so far, while other more or less unknown and never hyped hybrids vastly outperform others doing 4 or 5 blooms at a time, per 1"-2" fertiliser pill

Conclusion worth considering, I might well ditch under performers and hibridise from better performers...

Nope, not much work involved really, throw tubers in pots, drag tubers out. Poke fertiliser in pots. Wollah.

Spending a few hours at a time digging passes the time, I'm not fond of junk tv or driving a piece of junk commuting

Finding gems worth a go to grow is a pleasant saga, there's a lot of hohum stuff out there

 

[j.w]

Well it shows that you are getting great results from all the hard work that you do in creating the beautiful lilies that you have grown!

 

[fishin4cars]

Andy, That's a cool shot! I like that better than the close-ups, Well maybe not better but I do like seeing the variaty of leaf colors. The clouds reflecting in the pond with all the different types is really neat. The Gorgon dwarfs what normally are larger variaties. Wonder if Koi would mess with those prickly leaves? I can Imagine a 40 specimen and 25 specimen pond has got to be a chore to keep cleaned up. but the divdends more than make up for it. Thanks for sharing.

 

[adavisus]

Nope, there's no big deal to clear out. Waterlilies shed foliage which is soft celled, it breaks down to trivial traces of sediment. One reason I'm currently reluctant to show pond shots, after two months of 100's temps, there's a backlog of shuffling plants about, fading lilypads to clear out, some storm tossed stuff like pine needles and sweetgum damage to lilypads to clear up. Excessive heat scorches and disfigures pads, as they unfurl etc

The gorgon spikes don't in any way bother amphibians, which don't have a hard casing of tough scales, what is deterred is flesh like mine which would respond quick to such spikes, especially in the dark, and I'd guess, the soft sensitive flesh of many grazing critters mouths, tongues and throats...

Better waterlily shots will happen in the cooler months when there's some tidying up done and I get round to spacing out the ones I want to shoot better. Yups, the picturesque visual features of a waterlily, set against some dramatic reflection of the sky is a fleeting visual feature unique to ponds which makes getting that moment in a shot, a challenge to anticipate. With a camera.

 

[j.w]

I like that shot and there isn't even a bloom open in the picture

 

[fishin4cars]

That is a really neat shot. Notice the dragon fly water for the night bloomer to open. It is isn't it?

 

[leet13]

I am so jealous! Wow! I got a few hardy lilies and had 2 flowers this year. No signs of any more... pathetic. LOL I know I am a pond newbie so hopefully by next summer everything will improve!