We have our first water lily of the season!
A second one is along the way. Water lily flowers open up fully by mid morning. Once the sun starts heading west they start to close up. All the shots in this post were taken at 6 in the evening (after I came back from work) when it was well on its way to calling it a day.
Now for the news, we had our first link party feature! My original post on the water garden was featured on the ‘Greatest of the Great Outdoors‘ link party at Eclectically Vintage. This was a one of a kind link party hosted jointly by 5 great bloggers! Thanks a ton Kelly!
Back to the water garden; after the recent snafu with the other water lily pot I had another setback. The other day I noticed that elephant ear tuber in the water garden pot started rotting while the ones planted outside were thriving.
It seems that not all elephant ears do well in water; only ‘taro’, which is a special type of elephant ear grows in water. The others do not like wet feet though they like ample moisture. The solution that I found (online) was to keep the pot half submerged. Not entirely convinced. So I’ve decided to wait it out for now. I took the tuber out cut off the rotting part and re-potted it. Hopefully it will grow back, outside the water. Once the other elephants ears get big and strong I’ll try to introduce them back into the pot. After reading up more on these I don’t have high hopes that it will survive. But it is worth a try.
Meanwhile, I’ve been craving for some more action in the water garden this year. So went plant searching at our local Lowes and found this.
A mini cattail. For those of you interested, they also had water lilies in at least 4 different colors, a floater, and a maroon iris. All except the water lilies ($8.98) were priced at $6.98. I kept reasoning that this year I hadn’t incurred any $ on the water garden other than the fish (I had re-used all the plants from last year, which I had got on clearance) so I could indulge in a plant this time. Cattails have always fascinated me. Plus I wanted a nonflowering plant that had an interesting shape (the elephant ear would have looked really great in it). The plant came wrapped in an all natural filtering fiber covered in a net bag (to protect the plant from koi in case you are planting it in a pond).
No, what you see there is not the plant. It is just a floating plant locator to give you an idea of where you dropped it. You are supposed to tie it to a string and attach it to the net (would make more sense if you have a pond). I just left it there. The planting instructions said to just drop the plant into the container at a height of 1-6″. I propped it up on a large stone that I found in the yard. It is supposed to grow on its own. Keeping my fingers crossed.
We also had another casualty in the garden, one of the fishes. We have had unusually spring-y weather around here lately. Day time temps in the 60’s, so definitely the water temps would have been in the 50’s, too low for tropical fish. I’m sure the other one is dead too though the kids refuse to believe it. I’m gonna wait for perfect summer weather to add any more fish to the garden.
Let it grow…..let it grow……..One more shot of all that prettiness.
Note to self : Will need to winterize each of the plants the proper way this fall.
Anyone inspired to create a water garden yet? You can get the detailed how to here.
Other Water Garden Posts You Might Enjoy;
How to Grow Water Lilies on your Deck
How to Set Up Water Gardens
DIY Porch Water Garden
How to Grow Lotus
Grow Paperwhites in Water
Tropical Water Garden
How to Grow Papyrus
Beautiful Vidya!!!! That is a labour of love :). Water garden – really really interesting.
Thanks Sunita.
Oh how I love this little garden! That cattail is the perfect addition.
Hope the fish do better the next time around!
Thanks again for joining our Great Outdoors party!
Kelly
Thank you Kelly. Can’t wait for the cattail to grow. I’m sure it is going to change the look of the garden totally this year.
Very beautiful water garden Vidya, thanks for sharing….
Thanks Bindu. Glad you liked it.
Nicey….
Definitely trying this this spring… about winterizing. can i just bring the whole thing. indoors??
🙁 Might not work indoors. They might end up rotting as they need a ton of sunlight.
Vidya
I have a huge bay window in the front. of the house. sunlight just pores into it. maybe if i place it there or even get a grow light… hmmm
Keeping my fingers crossed. Hope it works out for you. Do let me know how it goes.
V
I had a small pond(a good sized round tub that I sunk into the ground) We lived in Brooklyn, N.Y at this time. Had a gold fish that lived over the winter, Top layer of water frozen and covered with snow for months. When everything melted our fish was still alive. Goldfish are very hardy, I think because the tub was set below ground. My Grandchildren named him ROCKY.
I have so got to try this. Wish me luck.
Hi Vidya! What a wonderful idea. I’m going to have to try this. What is the easiest way to change your water every 10 days?? Sounds like alot of maintenance but oh so Beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing it with us. Robyn S.
Thanks Robyn. I just spill the water out or use a small container to take out a thrid of the water, using it to water other plants. Hope that helps.
Vidya
Your waterlilys look great, but as long as they are the hardy lilys,which they look like, you shouldn’t have to bring them inside. And yes goldfish would be more hardy for outdoors as you can get the small feeder goldfish from wal mart. But remember in cold water there is less dissolved oxygen so you can’t put too many in there. And btw the smaller stock tanks that you can find at most farm supply stores make great ponds too…….just in case you want to add another!! Try to find potting medium geared toward aquatic plants and the same for fertilizer. Regular potting soil with fertilizer isn’t generally good especially if you have fish.
What is the water lily variety called? I’m setting up a container garden but unsure what variety to get.
Kelly,
I go this from Lowes. The ones around her sell on the hardy water lilies. Hope that helps.
Vidya
Did you not use a pump? I want to put one on my screened in lanai in S W Forida.
No Linda, I did not use a pump. I sued the mosquito dunk keep the mosquitoes away.