I ordered my first pond plants yesterday!

[Cinnamon]

I finally found a place and ordered my pond plants yesterday. I found a place about 5 hrs from me. Texas raised Pond Plants :D I told her that is why she got this sale. She was reasonable and said she would ship them yesterday! What service! She said actually the plants will do better for me here than they do for her. It doesn't get as cold here as it does there!

I ordered 2 Water Lillies. One Rembrandt ( can you figure why? :lol: ) and a Texas Dawn. I also ordered 2 Parrot Feathers, 2 Cattails, 2 Dwarf Papyrus, and a water poppy. Wish me luck on these! Everyone says I have a "green" thumb. We will see on the pond plants. I have never tried these yet. Time will tell!

[Jackie Ramo]

We are going to need a program to keep our Rembrandt's straight !rofl

Everything you ordered is pretty hard to kill so you should be just fine

[Rembrandt]

I'm going to get stuck in the pond??? :confused:
With a bunch of Lillies???? :confused:

Rembrandt/aka: Remmy

[Jackie Ramo]

Well Rem, at least you will be out of the salt water !rofl

[Cinnamon]

Too funny Jackie! I guess it would be confusing to someone who doesn't know us! :lol:

[Dewi]

My wifes not very good in the garden, shes been known to kill plastic flowers.
Tried water lilies, my Koi just love them, someone on some site told me to put some water lettuce in as koi don't like it, they ate it for desert. :roll:

[Terri]

You must be the one with the green thumb then Dewi... I've seen pics! ;-) and you have a lovely garden/pond :grin:

[Dewi]

Thank you when the weather warms up I will endeavour to take some pics and show you all. Just now it is still very cold fish are at the bottom but, weather is starting to warm up and I'm looking forward to the new seasom.

[BonnieIN]

I love pond plants, no special watering required! :)
I don't have Rembrandt but it's very pretty.

Texas Dawn is a wonderful bloomer, you should love it.

Good luck,
Bonnie

[Cinnamon]

Thanks Bonnie. My plants arrived today! That is why I wasn't on. They came in the mail first thing this morning so I spent the day getting them planted and in the pond. My plant shelf was a little deep so I had to go by some pads to raise the pots some. I covered the pads in liner. The lady said that on the water lillies you can only have 4" of water above it. I wanted to put one out in the middle. I guess I will have to fashion a stand for it. I hope they do well. I put a fertilizer tab in every pot also. We are lucky as we have clay soil. My plant shelf is officially full :lol:

[Jackie Ramo]

Well Bonnie can corrrect me but I think the lady meant only until the leaves started to show. I have a lily at the 4 ft depth and it is the first to bloom each year... Although so types of lilies do prefer shallower water, all prefer still water.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie these are Hardy Lillies. They have several leaves already. They are kind of colored but they have leaves. I don't know if it was from the fall and winter or it is new leaves. Since this is all new to me. She might have meant 4" until they start perking up. I will pop her an email and see. The Water Poppy plants are thick. I ordered one and she gave me enough to put in 2 pots. Right now I am fighting Pine Pollen. Tis the season where everything is yellow! :-( Our rain wasn't heavy enough to wash the pollen off the trees. We are suppose to get rain Sat night, Sunday and Monday. Heiko's black truck stays yellow! I have a ring around my pond and yellow already on the leaves of the new plants. When it is done I will have to wipe down the liner at the sides and the cords and plants. This pine pollen is a pain!

[Jackie Ramo]

Are you really complaining about not having rain !rofl Be careful what you wish for my dear!!!

Well hardy for you lilies and hardy for me are two different things. I know many recommend here to keep the plants shallow to warm them and allow them to start with the sunshine, personally, its too much work for me so I just put them where I plan for them to stay... never noticed if it takes longer for them to get established or not, certainly once they start sending up leaves they don't seem to care how far up they need to go. But different lilies like all other plants have different growing preferrences.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie now I would not complain about the rain not coming hard enough! haha It is just when you need it you don't get it. We have our chances in the next 3 days but today I am enjoying the 73 F and sunshine! :-D

[Jackie Ramo]

Oh, so now you are bragging :-x Its a balmy 34F here today... and is supposed to snow.... not much just enough to depress us further.

[BonnieIN]

Cinnamon, are you in Texas?
With the summer heat, your waterlilies need a depth of at least 18 - 24 inches. Even here in Indiana, I have my Texas Dawn at a depth of 2 1/2 feet.

When you first pot a lily, you CAN submerge so the leaves just reach the water level BUT will need to keep lowering it until it meets the required depth.
I assume this would be every 2-3 days for you in your warmer climate.

Good luck, Hardies are very difficult to kill!

Bonnie

[Rembrandt]

Hi :D Bonnie,

I am Cinnamon's "lesser" half. :D We are in Southeast Texas. Our climates border on sub tropical. I helped Cinn set the plants yesterday evening and we got them pretty close to the 4" from the surface. If we can sink the plants more, that will help us out. We were trying to figure out a clever way to get them in the center but still have them raised. ....always learning.

Rembrandt/aka Remmy (and not that fantailed goldfish either) :lol:

[Cinnamon]

Bonnie I am in SE Texas. We live 40 miles from the coast and 40 miles from Lousianna. Thanks for letting me know. That won't be a problem putting them at that depth. The places I wanted to put them are that deep. THANKS! Jackie said they like still water. Would one make it with a little movement? I was wanting to put one in the deep end. It is only 4' wide, 22' long and 42" deep. I have a waterfall on one end and a skimmer on the other. It isn't rough water but it isn't still like the other end. I hope I can put one there. I appreciate ALL your help. I am still a newbie!

[Jackie Ramo]

I have one in front of the skimmer and it does fine, except it stops the skimmer from working at its best. I have another next to the waterfall but since it was a lovely present late last summer I am not sure how well it is going to do there but it is out of the direct flow of the waterfall.

[Rembrandt]

Jackie,

We hope to get the new waterfall up and running this weekend. I am curious as the water flow, patterns, etc. Hopefully the plants will be happy!

[Isis_Nebthet]

I haven't been confident enough to stick Sioux and James Brydon out yet. Nope won't do it until Attraction shows some movement.

So the lillies I bought because they get bought out so quick are outgrowing my 75 gallon community tank while I see a lot of them still sitting on the store shelf *sigh* If I had waited there'd be none left......darn Murphy ;-)

[Tamianth]

Good job Cin & Rembrandt! My first lily bloomed last year! :) They are so pretty! I'm hopeing the Firecrest will bloom this year as well! :)

I'm hopeing to add sioux this year. And I so want a Lotus, but that isn't going to happen! :-(

[Cinnamon]

Bonnie so I should wait 2 or 3 days then move the water lillies deeper? Should I go to the bottom? I can move them 2" deeper and after that it is 9" deeper. That is the depth of the big end of our pond. My plant shelf is 18" under the water. How long during increments of moving them? I hate being a newbie!! :lol: I guess everyone has to start somewhere!

[BonnieIN]

You can put them in the deeper water now if you'd like. Raising just gives them alittle of a head start but with your warm temps, you'll have lots of leaves and blooms in no time!

They are very easy to grow but be prepared, you'll want more! ;)

Here's a good website which is a good reference for potting, dividing, etc:

http://web.archive.org/web/20001003043941/theplantplace.com/toc.htm

[Cinnamon]

Bonnie thanks so much for your advise. I will climb int he pond today and move them. I did notice yesterday they are putting on new leaves! So that is a GREAT thing! The Texas Dawn has 3 new leaves and the Rembrandt has one. My parrot feathers are already fluffing out as well. My Rembrandt likes the Parrot Feathers. I will check out that website. Thanks again!

[Jackie Ramo]

Great link Bonnie, thanks.

[Cinnamon]

I was looking at my water lillies this morning and I think I have a bloom coming up on the Rembrandt! It is not pointed like the leaves are. It is a bulb looking thing on the end of the stem. That would be awesome if it was a bloom already!

[Cinnamon]

Bonnie that is a Great link! THANK YOU! I bookmarked it for sure. I was ready the plants for Newbies like me. The Texas Dawn and the Rembrandt were listed! So I guess I did good! I do have a method to my madness! ;)

[BonnieIN]

Glad to help out.The link that I provided is an archive of a site which is no longer available, unfortunately. But definately one that is a good bookmark site.

Yes Cinnamon, you've got the beggining of a bloom! You will see it getting larger and larger as it reaches the surface. Then one day you go out and shazam.. you've got a beautiful bloom! :smile:

[Cinnamon]

Well my Koi are trying to destroy my Parrot Feathers! They get in the middle of it and just tear little leaves off! Is that normal? I have another mess to clean out of the pond this morning again. :sad:

[Jackie Ramo]

Hmmmmm yes :lol: Give them some spinach or some other greens and they will leave it alone. My guys love spinach. others say their like kale or lettuce

[Cinnamon]

I will have Heiko stop and pick some up on his way home tonight. I don't want them to destroy the parrot feathers. They are doing well! And I moved my lillies to the bottom yesterday. I swear that Rembrandt lilly is trying to reach the water top already. The leaves look a lot closer this morning.

[Cinnamon]

They did munch on the Spinach leaf last night. I hope they leave the parrot feathers alone now. It took them a bit before they started munching on it.

On my Water Poppies, they have some brown leaves. Should I cut them off? I figured it was shock from shipping and everything. I didn't know if I was suppose to trim them or not.

[Jackie Ramo]

Its always best to remove dead material from the pond.

Sometimes it takes a couple of tries before the fish realize what is being offered is food. Mine like spinach but got kale this morning... its still there but they also got some pellets so maybe they just aren't hungry enough.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie I cut the almost dead leaves off. Now the Rembrandt Water Lilly is surprising me! The leaves were at least 2" below the surface and some more. In under 48 hrs I have 4 leaves floating! Now the Texas Dawn is in the deep end. It is trying but it hasn't made it to the surface yet. It still likes about 2", but it had farther to go also!

[Jackie Ramo]

Now you are learning why I never understood the idea of putting them near the surface. Put them where you want them and they will grow like crazy to reach the sun.

[Busy B]

What did the lady that sold you them recommend for a potting mix?

[Cinnamon]

Busy B she said a clay based top soil. Funny thing clay is all we have :lol: I have some good topsoil mixed with it also. The pond people I bought my first stuff from uses straight clay.

[Jackie Ramo]

All the potted lilies I've ever bought have been potted in clay. Maybe I should dig some out of the hill at the back... no, maybe not.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie do you have clay soil up there? That is why when we get a lot of rain it takes forever to dry up. It has just now got to where we can walk on the south side of the house. It is still a little muddy!

[Jackie Ramo]

This garden is hard clay but I also have the diggings from the pond which is bedrock clay piled to make a hill in the back of the garden. Its that type of clay that oozes when wet and cracks when dry... and only weeds like to grow in :sad:

[Cinnamon]

The native plants here to do well. I guess they are use to the clay. When I do a flower bed I usually raise it and put good landscape mixture or Miracle Grow Potting soil in it. I know the crawdeads love the clay when it is wet. We have hills pop up all over our 3 acres!


The Water lilly in the deep end, which is the Texas Dawn, has one leaf touching the surface. The rest are right behind it. That is about 10" of growth in a week! The Rembrandt in the shallower end has 4 leaves on top and another almost there. It has 3 new leaves coming up and one bloom :D

[Jackie Ramo]

What is a crawdead... that's a new one to me.

[Cinnamon]

They are also called crawfish. I am attaching a pic. Around here they LOVE to eat spicy crawfish! They have crawfish farms all over. We have enough in our yard. They tunnel deep in the earth and live underground where it is wet. When it rains it fills their holes so they proceed to dig it out. Then you have mounds of dirt from 6" - 12". If it is a big one it will be taller! Some of the holes are about 2" diameter. Some big boys out there. They have a tail and pinchers. They hurt when they get you. While we were rebuilding the pond we dipped a bunch out of the hole. All the water we were getting was coming from the Crawfish holes! grrr

[Cinnamon]

Well my water lillies are really coming on. The Texas Dawn in the deep end has 4 leaves on top of the water this morning! YEA! I received the plants a week ago yesterday and potted them. They had to come a good 10" or more to the surface. If that is how they will grow they will have my pond shaded before I know it! Thanks for all the tips with them!

[Jackie Ramo]

I had no idea crawfishlived in the dirt!!! Here they live in the lakes and streams but are not as plentiful as they were when I was a child. We'd catch them and at the end of the day release them. Had my share of pincer pinches!! :D

Yes, waterlilies really grow quickly towards the sun once they get started. I hope mine are starting under the ice...

[Cinnamon]

Jackie they are sometimes called Mud bugs here. I get them out of teh skimmer all the time! :lol: When my Grandkids come and we have water standing in the ditch then I teach them to catch them. I get a string and tie a piece of bacon on it. They have fun for hours on end! :D

[Jackie Ramo]

In my first pond I added a couple of crayfish but the big koi ate them... Now the pond places don't seel them, or hermit crabs or newts for the ponds anymore.

[Cinnamon]

Jackie want me to ship you some? ;) We have plenty to share! Every time it rains we have sooo many hills. Plays heck with the lawn mower also. I swear some of them have to be lobster size the height of the hill and the diameter of the hole!

[Jackie Ramo]

Only if they are cooked. We had wonderful crawdad tails in New Orleans when visiting friends there.

[BonnieIN]

Cinnamon, how are the waterlilies growing?

Bonnie

[Cinnamon]

Bonnie I missed your post 3 weeks ago. I am so sorry! :( They are doing wonderful! The one I put in the deep end had about 10" to the surface. Within 4 days I had a leaf floating. Now that lilly the Texas Dawn had 19 leaves and one bloom coming up. It is only about 8" tall right now. The leaves are 3 times the size of the orginal ones. The Rembrandt I put in the shallower end is doing well also. The first bud popped it's head above the water last night. I can't wait until it opens. I am going to fertilize it again today. It has been 5 weeks now. The leaves were twice as big as the original leaves and now they are back small. It puts on a few leaves then the other ones starts dying. Is that normal? The other one has only lost one leaf.

The Paprys is putting more and more on. The Water poppies are so thick. No blooms yet. My parrot feather is awesome. I just ordered 4 more today. I threw it in the pond first and it wound up under the bridge. So I coiled it and secured it with fishing line and anchored under a rock. It is taught enough the fish cannot get into the line. They LOVE to stay under it when the sun is shining. So I ordered 4 more this morning and they will be here Thursday. I am going to secure 2 coming off the new watefall, one close to the brige and the other on the west side of the pond close to the deck. That should pretty much keep that section of the pond shaded well. It has been pretty warm and they hide under the bridge or in the deep end in the shade.

I will take a pic of the blooms as soon as they open up!

[BonnieIN]

Cinnamon, glad they are growing well for you!

Yes the leaves will begin to yellow, it's best to remove them. When you do, pinch off instead of pulling. I reach down as far as I can get and pull the stem and all.

I do admit.. in the middle of the summer when all the lilys are blooming and full of leaves, I can't keep up with them and sometimes I pull instead of pinch because they've gotten somewhat mushy at that point! !wow!

[Cinnamon]

Bonnie I do clip off the leaves when they start turning. I get close to the base and clip them off. I never tug on them. I was afraid it would mess the roots up. The Texas Dawn has only lost 2 leaves and now has 19 floating :grin: and a bloom on the way up. The Rembrandt has lost probably 5 leaves. I pulled another one yesterday. I had to get in the pond to fertilize the Rembrandt. Heiko is going to have to get in with me this weekend to do the Texas Dawn as it is in the deep end. Someone has to hold it just above water level and the other do the tabs.

The bloom on my Rembrandt is cracking open! I can't wait. I will post a pic when it opens!

[Cinnamon]

At 7:30 am this morning it looked like the bud on the Rembrandt was splitting open. When I went back out at 9:30 am to feed the fish it was opening. There are white petals and red in the center! I am so excited!!! By afternoon it should be open fully. I keep peeping at it and it continues to open. I will post a pic this afternoon!