How do I plant...

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

For the record, I feel better when Ghaz starts a thread off with "How do I plant....."

Lol! I will learn until the day I die!

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

Ghazanfar, I actually have extra pond clay here if you'd like some. Let me know. Otherwise, here's how I plant lilies:

Thanks for the info Sherry! I might have to take you up on that offer
for the clay. The only thing is, time is a little on the premium, and
the lily is still in the auction bag - think I can buy that clay from
somewhere local?

SWEET pictures BTW - I hope mine bloom!

[DelawareJim]

Ghazanfar;

I just use garden soil for mine. Just like mineralizing the soil for a soil based tank, you just want soil without any organic matter in it. If you add ferts to the bottom of the pot, you could just take the plant and pot to one of your contruction sites nearby and pot it up at one of the dirt piles.

Also, kitty litter is a baked clay sort of like Flourite and is a simple substitute for pond clay as is Flourite and SMS.

Cheers.
Jim

[DelawareJim]

OK, good info. I live in a more rural area than most of you, so Lowes and DIY are about it for many things.

Oh yeah, thanks Sherry for your post because I was planning on doing this since I saw Jay's post, and I was just going to put the lilies in Flourite or something. They would have never bloomed and I wouldn't have had a clue. I have an old bag of Florabase that I've been wanting to get rid of. I think it would be great for a lilly.

Thanks everyone.

Ben;

Lilies are huge feeders but not picky about the substrate as long as it is low in organic matter. I feed my lilies monthly with the larger Jobes fert stakes for aquatics or for flowering plants. Just push a stake into the pot with the supplied plastic cap for hammering if necessary.

Cheers.
Jim

[sherrymitchell]

Ghaz, LIke Jim said, anything works. Try some of that ADA, lol. It will probably grow leaves the size of dinner plates.

Shultz makes an aquatic "soil" that you can buy at Lowes or Home Depot. Just rinse it really well first. It can cloud the water otherwise.

Jim, can I get those fertilizer stakes at HD or Lowes??? I need to fertilize the lilies in the pond and haven't gotton around to it yet.

I really like Osmocote for replanting, dividing and repotting. It's small and you can pour it out in the container under the clay, BUT you can't use it unless you lift the lily and put more in the bottom of the container. Lily tabs tend to fall apart when I get them in the water, so I'd like to try the Job's spikes and see if they work.

[DelawareJim]

Sherry;

Yup, I've seen them at HD, Lowes, and Ace hardware. They come in a resealable 1 pound plastic pouch about 6" wide and 8-9" tall. I think there are 10-12 spikes per pouch.

Cheers.
Jim

[RTRJR]

LOL! Don't we all - the opportunity to offer advice to Ghaz!

BTW, on the lilies, the hardies don't mind being really submerse, but the tropical do best or start best in very shallow water, just barely covered. That calls for some creative brick work from me. Then lower the pot as the plant develops.

If anybody does "banana plants", the aquatic with tubers, it behaves just like a tropical lily and does well in tubs. Frilled white flowers are really nice, and it produces pups at the leaf-stem axil just like the livebearer tropicals. I haver not had them bloom attached to the mother plant as the true tropical water lilies sometimes do. Too bad the barrels block the view of the underside of the floating leaves, they are much prettier than the topsides.

[RTRJR]

Opps, duplicated.