Re: Lily Question    9/15/12
would a 4"w x 3"h pot be large enough to plant a Nymphaea 'Pygmaea helvola' in?
<I'd go w/ something larger... six by... B>
would a 4"w x 3"h pot be large enough to plant a Nymphaea 'Pygmaea ' in?
<Cam, you can try it and be ready to transplant if the root ball gets too big. Basically, you have to make sure the roots don't get choked, just like a plant in the soil.
Read this report on the plant from University of Florida:
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/database/documents/pdf/shrub_fact_sheets/nymspph.pdf
By the way, are you aware of the Arizona Aquatic Plant Association? It was started by Rhonda Wilson, who writes the regular planted tank column in Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine.
The club has a good number of members in both Phoenix and Tucson who are familiar with keeping plants in our harsh climate, and a very active online forum.
http://www.azaquaticplants.com/
- Rick>
Re: Lily Question    9/16/12
would a pot that is 7.5" wide x 5" deep work in a 6 gallon pond that is 16"w x 16"d x 7"h?
<At some point, you just have to bite the bullet and go for it. By the way, 16x16x7 is almost 8 gallons, not 6. Still awfully small for the climate. Maybe keep it indoors during summer and take it outside in late September, using a 25-watt heater in the winter. - Rick>

Worm that is eating my water lily      8/14/12 Hi, Many thanks for considering this. My water lily is full of holes and, on inspection, I saw thin white worms (almost invisible) on both pad surfaces. I also noticed them crawling around the edges of the pond close to the surface of my half-barrel pond. They appear to hide in the gaps between the boards of the barrel. They crawl surprisingly quickly. <Mmm, insect larvae of some sort... are there any adults flying about?> They are up to 1/4 cm in length. On closer inspection they have forked 'tails' that they appear to paddle with. They have dark heads (possibly red) and a pattern in the same colour on midsection of the upper surface of their white bodies. I have attached a couple of photos. I'm very curious to know what they are and what to do to protect my water lilies from being destroyed (over 2/3 of the pads have been eaten). Many thanks Mark Allen <The safest approach is simply to rely on blasting them off early mornings with garden hose/water... and relying on fishes in your system to eat them (platies, American Flagfish, smaller goldfish, Koi)... Up from this are oil (only) sprays like Volck... Search WWM re. Bob Fenner>

crops

Re: Worm that is eating my water lily      8/14/12 I have found it impossible to identify a curious floating entity on my pond. They float around the pond edge, at the base of my reed mace and around the edges of lily pads. They resemble miniature, grey curling leaves. <Pupae cocoons... after the flies have flown> On closer inspection they are segmented. When I looked into the pond last night with a torch I was surprised to find white ones floating on the pond (or were they reflecting the light? I'll have to check that one out). <White ones are newer, still have larvae in them> I have never seen them change. They crumble or break up if touched. Perhaps they are clusters of eggs? There is nothing I can find online about these but I have lots of them. Any ideas? Thanks Mark <Same resp. as last time. BobF>

and

small pond with water lily leaf damage 5/3/12
Hello! I have a 150 gallon pond in Houston area. We have 10 goldfish and a water lily. There is also a ribbon snake, about 12 inches long. The water lily leaves are torn apart and separated from the plant. I s this the work on the ribbon snake?
<Mmm, doubtful>
This happened last year and we lost the lily. Also, last year we had 40 fish so has the snake been feasting? How do I get rid of him and move him to another pond? Thank you, Fran
<Likely the damage was caused by another predator... a bird, perhaps a mammal... Read here re all:
http://wetwebmedia.com/PondSubWebIndex/pdpestspreds.htm
and the linked files above. Bob Fenner>

water lily leaves 7/18/2010
Dear Sir
Can you please tell me how, ( the process by which), water lily leaves turn back up the right way after my Koi have turned them upside
down.
Thank you
Stan Reed
<Gosh, I don't know... other than to concur w/ you that they indeed do...
IF not flipped all the way over. Is it water tension on the "bottom" surface, and a lack of this on the upper waxy one? Perhaps a quirk/property of the cellulose in the leaves exerting a "this end up" spring tension? Bob Fenner> 

Lilies d'Amour or lilies no more?  9/27/05 We have frontage on a fresh water lake. The lily pads have overtaken the water. We can't swim, boat etc. We've tried pulling them out by hand and with implements but it is evident we are losing the battle. Any ideas? <Mmm, a few... there are chemical herbicides that one can utilize... but these are pretty non-specific... and I don't know what your neighbors might think if you killed their lilies... And there's the issue of legality... where the water might go... irrigation, watering of livestock... There are biological controls, but these might posit the same issues... and then there is/are the manual side... it may come as a "happy surprise" to you to find that there are companies willing to buy your lilies... I would check your phone directories for pond service companies in the region re... and in turn, cast your net further, contact the national pond livestock suppliers (these are listed on WWM)... the cooler weather is upon us... so the lilies will die back... next year? Perhaps a combination scuba training/weed removal classroom....? Bob Fenner> Water Lily Control Question We have a pond proximately 55 feet by 75 feet, with a depth of approximately one foot around the edges to approximately 7 to 8 feet at the center (it is shaped like a bowl). <How nice!>   We landscaped it with some cat tail on two sides, as well as other pond flowers, and we put a fountain in the center that works from early spring until late fall.   <Okay> Three to four years ago we made a big mistake in planting water lilies on the back/far side of the pond, directly in the ground in the water.  During the first two years the pond looked beautiful with the lilies blooming all summer long in small yellow flowers.  However, last year the water lilies somehow multiplied (perhaps the fountain pump in the center sucked in the seeds and sprayed them out all over) but the lilies spread and covered al of the pond surface area with thick pads of leaves during the summer.  Although this is good for the fish we have in the pond, it gives them shade and food, the pond does not look like what we want it to look like.  You hardly see any water anymore, just the lily pads and leaves. <I see> We try to clean the pond three times during the summer but it I very difficult to do because the water is very deep in the center, it comes above your head, and the only way to clean the pond is to float on a raft and pull out the lilies by hand, which takes a long time and is very hard to do on a hot sunny day. <Have spent MANY hours doing this myself> Do you have any advice for us as to how to put this lily problem under control, perhaps trim or prune them or even destroy them?  Can we use any tools you can think of to cut them 5 to 10 inches under water easily because they come back within a few days and the stem is 6 to 7 feet long under water from the bottom.  Do you know of any company that produces any tools (like weed eaters or grass cutters) that can work under water?  Also, do you know if we don't let them grow above the water and reproduce seeds, would it be possible to prevent them from growing the next season?  Or is there anything you know of (or can direct us to someone who may know) that we can do to put them under control without destroying the life and the fish that are in the pond? <There are gardening hand tools like "Hula Hoes" that can be adapted (longer handles) to cut the lily pad and flower stems near the bottom... and a possibility of diving to hand-remove the tubers... and chemical means (a bit dangerous to all livestock if too much is killed off all at once)... that can be broadcast via sprayer or pellets... even biological control means in some places (triploid carps of a few species)... nothing to just slow down for a season> I would greatly appreciate any assistance you could provide.   Thank you in advance, Blagoj Panovski <Having worked in water feature design, construction, maintenance for several years... I am given to suggest, if the problem is "that bad" that you drain the basin, let dry, and use a power tool (back hoe, skip loader...) to scrape the area clean, start again, with either blind potting the lilies or building berms... likely wire and re-bar, with some concrete/shotcrete... possibly a liner... to control their further expansion. Bob Fenner> Shade tolerant Water Lilies Are there varieties that will tolerate five hours of a 12 hour sunshine day in the shade? <Yes, most hardies do fine in this arrangement... and a few tropicals... they won't blossom as often or long, but will do so nonetheless> I have a pond with a large old Oak and am told it must go. But I really don't want to lose such an old tree. <Me neither... I would just regularly remove the leaf litter from your oak. This is the real source of possible trouble. Net out the leaves once a week and you should be fine> Do you have any ideas as to where I can find varieties like this? Thanks Bill Richards San Angelo, Texas <Yes. Most all of the mail-order water garden suppliers carry shade-tolerant nymphaeaceans... Van Ness, Lilypons... use your search engines with the terms: "water garden supplies". Bob Fenner>

Waterlily?  I grow a plant in a pot, which in our country is referred to as 'Waterlily'. I am sure it is not, but I can find neither its Latin name nor its common name.  It has very large roundish leaves and produces one flower a year growing on a long stalk.  Can you please suggest its name?  <Perhaps it is a Nymphaea species... very likely a member of the family Nymphaeaceae... Take a look on the Net with these terms. Bob Fenner>