This is a "Charlene Strawn" that I bought in the early 1990s. I'd say I have gotten my money's worth. I love the way it smells...unlike anything else I know.
This is a "Charlene Strawn" that I bought in the early 1990s. I'd say I have gotten my money's worth. I love the way it smells...unlike anything else I know.
wow four blooms
Oh wow.. It's gorgeous!!! You bought in early 90s? You have it for more than 20 yrs? That tells us how much you love it!
hp.
I'm a sucker for white flowers! Beautiful!
Thanks everyone.
Hp... yes I have divided it at least every other year for over 25 years. I love to give away what I cut off, and it hurts when no one wants them and I have to throw them away. Last year I tried planting them in the big pond in back. I had 7 nice leaves on the surface and the turtles ate all of them. They haven't come back.
KoiNC...They are actually more yellow than they look in the picture. That's the camera on my phone that makes them look a little washed out.
Excellent!
As a total newbie to koi and lilies, I've tried for three years to grow lilies. I received a number of them from Koiphen members but they all died! Finally, I am totally babying one that I purchased and watch every day as it is sprouting leaves. (Today I see a fourth one popped up). I've made sure that no water is falling on it from the fountain; watching that the koi are not nibbling on it; and that that no plants are crowding it. Is there anything else I need to be doing?
I love all the water lily pictures that people post-total vicarious pleasure. Pickerel, I love that you have had this lily for so long and that you divide it every other year-you inspire me!
Sounds like you are growing them from a rhizome, which is usually a pretty good way to go about it. It's not a bad idea once they get some leaves to pop a fertilizer tab in there to make sure they're getting the nutrients you need. You can buy them cheap on ebay. You may have just gotten unlucky with the others.
Thanks Freedam. All I do is add plenty of fertilizer and they grow like weeds. I kept two lilies in 5 gallon buckets of water in the garage over the winter while I was building my pond. When I planted them this Spring, I added 4 API plant food tablets underneath the rhizome/roots. Then after it was filled with soil I added a big Laguna fertilizer spike. The tablets can be added once a month during the growing season. The spike lasts all year. When you plant them you have to be sure that the growing end of the rhizome is above the soil, not covered with dirt. Also, lilies like some clay in the soil. I think they call it a heavy loam. I had plenty of red clay from my pond dig. I sifted it through 1/4" hardware cloth and mixed it in with regular top soil.
Thank you both so much! So last year I did use fertilizer tabs but I thought I may have overdone it and killed the plants! This one came with one tab which I used about a month ago when I set the plant in the water. Oh my gosh! I'm so excited Pickerel, to hear that you started the plants in the garage! I have a hard time in the NY winter and this year brought my small koi inside to a nice large aquarium in the garage and kept my Saracenia alive (probably should have let it rest-oops-but it was so nice to look at!-now it's starting like a new baby) and my Egyptian Papyrus went crazy with the natural light from windows and a plant light. It made my winter so much more pleasant! But could I have really kept them alive in the winter in my aquarium!?
Okay, KoiNC and Pickerel: fertilizer (it's a small plant, isn't 4 too many?); a spike; and some clay which I have from my other natural flow through pond. Thank you so much!
I didn't start the lilies in the garage, I overwintered them there. It got down in the 50s inside on cold days, and they continued to grow very thin stems with small leaves. I didn't touch them all winter, and they were a tangled mess this spring. I cut off a lot of stems/leaves that were spent, leaving just a few of the healthiest looking leaves.
I think the amount of fertilizer can be adjusted to the size of the pot. That just makes sense to me. I am using 5 gallon pots this year, bigger than I have used before, so that's why I added more fertilizer than usual. The tabs are spread out so that as the roots grow, they will reach more nutrients. My leaves are as healthy as usual but I'm getting more blooms than in the past. When I discovered the spikes a few years ago, the guy at the water garden store said to use 3 with each lily and I would get more blooms than I've ever seen before. I didn't do that because I'm cheap, but now I see what he meant. The rhizomes need room to grow, and they grow horizontally, so large shallow pots are good. The pots I'm using are about 14x17x11 deep.