Short blooming time on water lilies

by Darlene
(Windsor, Ontario Canada)

why do lillies close in the full sun - why not when the sun sets - why do they bloom for only a few hours?

Doug says if you have hardy water lilies (and not night blooming ones) then full sun should do the trick.

That's *assuming* you have fed them and the water isn't being changed daily or in heavy moving water so they're stressed out. In other words, if you have a stressful environment for a lily, then you won't see blooms.

This is particularly true with first year lilies or some of the really small ones you buy from the big box stores such as Wal-Mart. Small tubers are not going to perform as well as large established ones.

Good luck - keep growing them strongly and ensure that they are indeed getting full hot sun with no shade.