Water Lily - Marliacea Carnea - Morning Glory

Planting guide for Water Lilies

Water lilies need at least 4-5 hours of sunlight per day during the warmer months to produce flowers.

Upon arrival:

Plants will be wrapped in damp newspaper. They may be a bit smelly upon arrival, this is normal.

As soon as possible, remove the newspaper and place them in a bucket / dish of water.

For best results, get them potted up promptly.

How to pot up:

Use a container without holes, I find that an old 4 litre plastic ice cream container makes a perfect pot.

Any squat pot of similar size will work, just add some old newspaper to the bottom to cover the holes. This stops the soil from escaping into your pond.

Do not use regular potting mix for water lilies. The best mix to use is 1 part of river sand with 3 parts clay soil. Sandy loam or even regular garden soil can be used as an alternative to the clay soil.

I like to add a old dried chunk of cow manure as a natural fertiliser. If you have anything like that on hand, place in the bottom of your pot, add some of your special mix then place in the water lily rhizome. Add more mix around the rhizome ensuring the growing tip is well exposed, and firm down well. Add a layer of small pebbles to hold the rizome in place, once again ensure that the growing tip is still exposed. 

Gently water down the soil mix in the container. Before placing in the pond, I like to place in a bucket of water to give the outside of the pot a little clean.

Place the pot in your pond. It's important not to submerge your new plant too deep until the leaves begin to grow.

A terracotta or plastic pot sitting upside down in the pond works well as a "step" until the plant establishes. Just place your pot on top, giving the growing tip approx 15cms of depth to the surface.

As the leaves grow and spread, the "step" can be removed allowing the plant to sit on the bottom of the pond.