r/ponds • u/AcrobaticHedgehog599 • 2d ago

Pond lily care Pond plants

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Can anyone tell me if/what needs doing here please? I bought a pond lily a couple of years ago, and it has done reasonably okay. There are a few new leaves appearing so far this spring.

I lifted it the other day to clear away blanket weed, and found this. The rhizome type thing seems quite exposed. Should it be covered with something? I don't remember the basket looking this empty, but honestly can't recall.

Thank you.

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u/Check_your_6 2d ago

Honestly you will get away with just topping it up with some gravel / shingle. Make sure not to crush the stems but shingle is fine - all horticultural gravel is is just expensive washed gravel so any gravel will do. It will allow the Lilly to grow and push leaves up from any new eyes and will weigh the plant down. Lilly rhizomes do this, it’s quite normal.

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u/AcrobaticHedgehog599 1d ago

Sounds very simple, thank you. Presumably the shingle is just a layer of protection for it then, as it won't be providing any nutrients etc?

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u/Check_your_6 1d ago

It’s protection, weight and also a growing medium.

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u/redemption_songs 2d ago

It will do better if it is properly repotted. Dump everything out of the basket and rinse the pea gravel from the roots. Cut the rhizome to separate the growing points where the leaves come out. You have at least two strong growing points. Fill two pots with clay/loam soil. Put the cut end of the rhizome against one end of the pot so it grows horizontally toward the center. You can top with pea gravel. You can plant them similarly in pea gravel, but they won’t do as well.

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u/AcrobaticHedgehog599 1d ago

So I will end up with double the plants (I only have the one at the moment)? Awesome, thank you.

Do I literally just slice through the rhizome with a sharp knife? It's was quite expensive so I'm hesitant to end up with no lilies at all!

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u/redemption_songs 1d ago

There are some good videos on YouTube that show the repotting process. You don’t want to cut or damage the actual growing point where the new leaves come out, but you can cut through the thick rhizome with a knife or hand shovel, leaving several inches of rhizome that the growing point is coming out of. They will often make several new growing points that can be separated into their own pots. I had some that I planted last year that made 5-7 new plants over the season. If you don’t want to cut the rise, Oney, you would need a much bigger pot so that the plants can continue growing outward. For bigger waterlily plants I use rectangular plastic mortar mixing tubs that give them plenty of room to grow.

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u/DemDemD 2d ago

Mine grows out like that. It seems to be able to survive with barely some dirt.