Tip of the Week – Focus on Water Lillies
Water Lillies are tough but beautiful and are always the main attraction of a water feature. Their big broad lushe leaves float on the surface while the brilliant flowers really set them off. There are many flower colours and combos.
Growth Mode
They quickly establish a strong woody rhizome in mud in a water body and develop roots and leaves astonishingly fast. New stems shoot from the rhizome growing to the water surface where overnight they will establish a beautiful floating leaf which spreads to its adult size.
Types
What we rcognise as water lillies come from 3 families of plants. Members of family Nymphaeaceae. Members of the genus Nelumbo. Some members of the genus Nymphoides. All families are referred to as Lotus at times.
Family Nymphaeaceae
The ones we deal with mostly are from the Genus Nymphaea… known as the ‘Hardy water Lillies’ and grow in tropical and temperate climates.There are 8 large flowering genera of about 70 species. Two of these are Nymphaea (35 species),Victoria (2 Giant Species).
Horticulturally the Nymphaeacea have have been hybridised since the 19th Century for Temperate Gardens. There are 3 main groups. The Hardy Water Lillies, the Tropical Night Blooming and the Tropical Day Blooming.
Family Nelumbonaceae
Nelumbo is the only genus and there are only two species in the Nelumbo Genus…ie Nelumbo nucifera the Sacred Lotus from Asia and the American Lotus Nelumbo lutea from North America and the Carribean. They do have a resemblace to the Nymphaeaceae but are botanically unrelated. There are hybrids between these two species.
Genus Nymphoides
There are about 50 species….quite a few in Australia, smaller but pretty flowers often sold as aquarium plants.
How to Grow
Them simply place the rhizome or sprout in the underwater pot you have chosen. Use garden soil, mud with a high cay content in the pot. Use a larger pot if you don’t have an earth bottom so the roots can expand. full sun is best.
Feeding
Place a little horse, sheep or cow manure (not chicken manure!) in your pots. Place it at the bottom of the pot. Water Lillies are gross feeders. Place some mud mix over the manure. Then the plant with the mud mix, then some coarse sand, then some gravel to keep it all contained.
Note
As well as being beautiful water lillies kill off all the algae and give fish shade and somewhere to hide.