Water Lily/Lotus resources? and some basic questions.

[jmitchem]

What are some good resources to learn about growing water lilies and/or lotuses? I'm looking for anything: books or websites or university extension offices or even botanical gardens with expertise.

I've found it pretty easy to find [good] information on vegetables and a number of other ornamental flowers and plants, but I'm not sure at all where to look when it comes to these.

I have some basic questions that I'm sure I can answer with some searching and reading around, however I also like to know more detail so I can troubleshoot and avoid certain mistakes.

As far as basic questions:

• I've seen that fountains nearby lilies is a bad idea, but I also would assume you'd want some sort of moving water/oxygenation. How do you accomplish this?
  
  
• What sort of requirements are there for the water? Is hose-water fine because the open area evaporates the chlorine? pH requirements?
  
  
• How do you manage plant droppings and molds/algaes/pond scum?
  
  
• If I decide to grow anything, it will be in containers above ground. I'm in the pacific northwest, so we have some temperature variance, but much less so than a lot of other areas. What kind of temperature ranges are acceptable, and should insulation/heating be used in the winter? Which temperatures are best for growth and flowering?
  
  
• How do you fertilize a plant that's underwater? (And do you need to at all?)
  
  
• What kind of light requirements are there? "Full Sun" is a different thing in Miami vs Seattle due to latitudes.

 

[j.w]

@jmitchem
Hi neighbor, I'm up north here in Washington, in Arlington.
Pretty darn easy to grow water lilies here.

Yep they don't like a lot of splashing water.
I have had mine not too far from my water fall w/some movement of water but not a lot of splashing near them.
I have a couple different filters going in my pond also which move water and suck out gunk. Keeps the water pretty clear.

I only have well water so not sure how much chlorine they could take. You can use chlorine remover in your water. It would take a day or so for the chlorine to go away on it's own and not sure that would harm them or not. Would depend maybe on how much water you add at a time I suppose.

Yes you will need to trim the dead part and pull out all the rotting leaves and stems. Don't know about mold as I don't have a problem w/that or algae. My filters take care of the scummy stuff.

What do you mean by containers about ground? You mean these will not be in a pond but in plant tubs? I suppose you can just keep the water clean enough by the water in water out thing then. You will have to keep them well fertilized. I like to use Osmocote as it can be added at the start of the season in Spring and then allowed to dissolve in a wadded up piece of paper towel crammed down deep near the roots. that way you can just add more maybe in 3months time to keep them blooming good or maybe you can get away w/doing it only once a year. They will then rest over Fall and Winter and repeat it all next year.

As long as the Water lilies are the hardy kind they can survive our winters fine here. Just make sure the water is at least 12" deep or more. You don't want the roots to freeze and our water does not freeze but a couple inches if even that much.

They love full sun but can take times of shade off and on but more sun than shade. The sun we get here is just fine if at least I'd say 4 hours of it per day, maybe more is better tho.

I eventually took all my lilies out as it became too much work for me lifting out all those pots to trim them all. Now a have a couple in my small frog pond which is only a foot or so deep. They live fine in that shallow of water and easier for me to maintain.
Here were mine in Summer in my big pond:

Here are the ones I have in the frog pond starting to bloom: