plants from "big box store"

[Bluerooster]

About the first week of this month, I purchased a new lily from Home depot. It was expensive, but apeared to be alive, as it had a couple of floating leaves. A week later I picked up another lily from Lowes. The one from Lowes seemed to be ok, but hard to tell through the packaging, but there was condensation on the inside, so I figured it to at least be alive (ish). The one from HD seems to be very weak, has only put 2 leaves on the surface, and they're quite small. The one from Lowes, (about half the price of the HD one) has taken off, and is growing like mad. there are already about 7 or 8 decent sized leaves on the surface, with many smaller ones, and several comming up.

The one from HD was in a pot, in a "pond" of water. The one from Lowes was in a basket of coconut husk, inside a clear plastic drinking cup, with a lid on it.
I'd purchased lilys from Lowes before, and they didn't do anything. But, it was late in the season, and there was no sign of moisture in the container.

My take on this is; you must be certian that the plants are alive. Chances are good if you get them early in the season, and there is moisture showing in the packaging, or they are actually in water, and growing.
I've no clue why the one from HD is so slow, but the one from Lowes is doing way better than I could hope. I even went back today and got another, along with a bog plant. (just to see what would happen) The Bog plant had a couple of dead leaves which I removed prior to planting, But I expect it will do OK, I'll keep ya'll posted on the progress.

I've since found lilys for about $3 each + shipping. I may give them a go next time around.

 

[Mmathis]

Just curious, but do you know the names of the 2 that you bought? The 1st 2 water lilies I ever had came from HD, and were both packaged in plastic cups. That was 6 years ago. One of them is a trooper (Sioux, a changeable yellow). The other one (something like James Brydon, a pink), never did much other than put out a few pads — don’t think it ever bloomed. I discarded it after about 3 years. I can’t say if it did poorly because of where I bought it, or what, but after those 3 years, I ran out of patience with it. I asked on here and others who had that same lily said it did well for them, so who knows......

Sometimes you just have to be patient with pond plants!

Check around on here, because a lot of members will give (you pay shipping) or trade lilies or other plants.