Dividing Lilies YUCK!

[HARO]

Update: I decided to do this tomorrow. LOL

As the old saying goes, "Why do something today, you can put off until tomorrow."

Another pondcrastinator!! Love it!
John

 

[pecan]

Another pondcrastinator!! Love it!
John

You're telling me, I finally got them repotted yesterday after work. How's that for a month of pondcrastination LOL

 

[HARO]

You're telling me, I finally got them repotted yesterday after work. How's that for a month of pondcrastination LOL

You qualify! It took you EXACTLY one month to reply.
John

 

[Timothy]

Although it hasn't been because of my "pondcrastination" but rather Mother Nature's peavishness, we won't be able to pot our lily's until the end of this week or early next week. I'm sure she over heard us congratulating each other up here on sustaining a relatively mild winter and couldn't stand it so now she's dragging it out to the max! Drizzle, cold, and windy. It's getting old, I am done with it!

 

[addy1]

I did mine. They didn't smell at all. Sure surprised me. Glad I wore gloves, cold wet, and the clay turns your hands black!

 

[adavisus]

Someone educate me a bit about Lily's please and what you folks are discussing in this thread. I inherited my pond and it came with lilies, which I thought will just grow this spring.... What's this about needing to divide them?

Hardy waterlilies have a growing point, called 'crowns' the growing part where roots go down, pads and buds go up. These crowns are formed by rhizomes which are like logs growing across the bottom of the pond.

Some waterlily varieties are incredibly slow and dense spreading, it takes years for them to need dividing.

Others, such as odorata hybrids can spread fast, form new crowns fast, spread up to 15' wide a year and choke a pond fast...

 

[pecan]

I did mine. They didn't smell at all. Sure surprised me. Glad I wore gloves, cold wet, and the clay turns your hands black!

I did not wear gloves and mine stunk. My hubby said it can't be worse than our 2.5 yo grand daughter pooping her pants, then he came outside and said, never mind, it is. LOL

I wore grubby clothes and as soon as I finished I jumped in the shower. After I got out and put lotion on my face I could STILL smell it on my hands! Blecchhhhh!

At least its been warm. The water was in the 60's and the temps outside in the mid 70's and sunny so at least I wasn't cold.

 

[pecan]

Hardy waterlilies have a growing point, called 'crowns' the growing part where roots go down, pads and buds go up. These crowns are formed by rhizomes which are like logs growing across the bottom of the pond.

Some waterlily varieties are incredibly slow and dense spreading, it takes years for them to need dividing.

Others, such as odorata hybrids can spread fast, form new crowns fast, spread up to 15' wide a year and choke a pond fast...

I don't know what varieties I have other than yellow ones and white ones from a local pond store, pink ones from Addy and red ones from Texas Water Lilies.com.

The white variety I have that I purchased locally spread much faster than all the others and are my least favorite, the rest spread at about the same rate. Two years is good for all of them except its pushing it for the whites. I should probably divide them annually but I don't.

 

[addy1]

I did not wear gloves and mine stunk. My hubby said it can't be worse than our 2.5 yo grand daughter pooping her pants, then he came outside and said, never mind, it is. LOL
.

Maybe it was because I worked on them when it was still cold, usually they do stink....................or I have become nose blind!

 

[Tula]

I'm hoping to get to mine next week, if the weather is good. It's not easy getting in and out of my pond, with straight sides....I'm getting older - LOL.

 

[Timothy]

I'm hoping to get to mine next week, if the weather is good. It's not easy getting in and out of my pond, with straight sides....I'm getting older - LOL.

I only have half of your problem! Getting in is easy........... lean slightly forward . Getting out is a lot trickier!
What I have started doing is using only pots with a lip around the outside edge. When I want to bring up (or gently put in) a pot I use two hoes and hook the edges of the hoe blades under the rim and lift the pots straight up with the handles.
(I am sure there's a joke in there somewhere...........)

 

[Lisak1]

I'm not gonna touch that hoe joke @Timothy !

One of our local pond stores has a hook device they use to pull lily pots up from the pond when you buy one. I really need to get one of those - I'd like to have the option to not climb in when the water hasn't yet hit 60! I was fooling with an airline the other day and managed to knock two pots off the shelf - so there they sit at the bottom until I get bold enough to wade in!

 

[Tula]

Hmmmmmm, will truths hoe technique. Would love a hook device to lift them, that would be great. I like using the oil pans, but they are heavy to lift, as they don't drain water. Surely we can come up with some idea, we could patent it and get rich !!

 

[cas]

I have my lilies in green hanging pots (with the hanger still on them) and use a large stick with a hook screwed in the end to get them out of the pond.

 

[Lisak1]

See, I thought of the hanging pots... but my problem is my lilies get so big that they are heavy as heck when I finally pull them up. I think the hangers would have a hard time holding up to the weight.