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>