Not enough nutrients

I have a large, above ground pond, with fish and waterlillies.

When my water lilies became route bound I emptied them out of their pots directly onto the pond concrete base. Many of the leaves are now yellowing, some are red and deformed and I have very few flowers. My conclusion is that I do not have enough nutrients for my plants.
Do you suggest I replant the plants into pots and add fertiliser tablets? The problem I originally found with this was that the tuber mass often makes it impossible to push in pond tabs.

OR would it be feasible to perhaps just add some light stones and add fertiliser tabs into these?


Doug says that a plant requires something in which to sink its roots. Dumping them onto the pond bottom pretty much cuts them off from stabilizing themselves and the roots aren't going to find nutrients.

If you add nutrients directly to the water, you're going to create one green scummy pond in a very short order. Not a good idea.

I understand how tough it is to get the pond tabs into the pots - but that also tells me your plants could do with a division (or larger pots)

So - if this were my pond, I'd be dividing the lilies in the spring and repotting them into large containers (14-16 inch) and feeding them up again with plant tabs at the recommended rate.

will a lily come back

by Rick Jorgensen
(Phoenix, AZ)

I live in Phoenix, AZ last summer we bought 2 tropical and 1 Hardy lillies. They all did great all summer and even in the fall. The 2 Tropical plants died off and you can see nothing from the pots at all, all signs of grorth are gone. I'm wondering if they will come back or ndo I need to start over again?


Doug says that if your winter is cold - and those corms get too cold, then yes you have to start over. They get too cold in all but tropical areas. :-( If on the other hand, it's due to low light levels, then you're going to be fine.

My .02 is that you're going to have to start over with the tropicals (the hardy should be fine)

But you can take their pot out of the water - and poke around with your finger. If the roots are hard - you "might" be fine. If they are soft, you get to start over. There's an article here on overwintering tropical lilies and in all but the tropical areas of the continent, this is what you have to do.

how quickly do waterlilies grow?

by Jocelyn Mallory
(Chiloquin, Oregon, US)

I am wondering how quickly waterlilies grow,m specifically how many plants to grow in our pond which is about 10' by 14' . We have fish in the pond and want to reduce algae and also provide shade for the fish. We tried putting some concret blocks in the bottom of the pond to provide a place for the goldfish to hide (from garter snake) and to provide shade. However, we had to remove them because we had such a problem with string algae. We've just purchased a muc vac which has worked quite well at remove the muck on the bottom of the pond. Basically we want a healthy pond,

Doug says that the mature size of a waterlily depends on the variety you pick. Different plants spread different amounts. The Dwarf varieties will spread 2-3 feet while the larger more vigorous ones will do 7-10 feet. The rule of thumb is to cover two-thirds of the pond with plants.

As for the concrete block creating a string algae, I suspect there are other problems involved. You may want to read about algae problems here. There is a section on string algae there as well.

Water lily blooming

Normally, how many days will a bloom continue to open?
Is it not blooming because it slipped underneath the water?

Doug says it depends on the variety but three days is the normal length of time for each waterlily bloom. And they slip under the water after they're finished blooming (or if you fill up the pond higher than they were to start) :-)

Water Lilies From Seed

by Gary
(Nova Scotia)

What is the most successful way to grow water lilies from seeds?

Doug says the article is right here.

water lily leaves going yellow

by mike Davis
(dayton ohio usa)

i bought a new lilly and now some of the pads are turning brown and yellow and dying.

Doug says that old leaves do go brown and yellow as they age. A strong growing water lily will replace these all summer. Unless the plant isn't producing new leaves, losing a few isn't a problem.