Hello, new gardener! As the water warms above 60°F (15°C) and the sun lingers longer, we sense it’s time to wake. Your first task is to check on us if we’ve overwintered. Remove any old, dead foliage from our pots to make way for our new shoots. If you’re planting new tubers, gently place us in a wide, shallow pot with heavy clay soil—a specialized aquatic planting medium is best. Top the soil with a layer of gravel to keep it from clouding your water. Start us in shallow water, and as our leaves reach the surface, gradually move our pot deeper to our final depth of 12-18 inches.
This is our time to shine! We are working tirelessly to produce those beautiful blooms you love. Please place us where we can receive at least 6 hours of direct sunlight daily; we cannot flower without it. You may notice aphids on our pads; a strong spray of water from a hose is often enough to dislodge them. Feed us now! We are heavy feeders. Push a specialized aquatic plant fertilizer tablet into our soil near our roots every 3-4 weeks to fuel our spectacular show. Remember to remove any yellowing leaves and spent flowers by twisting and pulling the stems close to our base. This keeps us healthy and looking our best.
As the days shorten and the air chills, our focus shifts. We stop growing and begin preparing for dormancy. You should stop fertilizing us; new growth now would be too tender for the coming cold. Continue to remove dying foliage as it yellows and browns. This prevents decaying organic matter from fouling the water over winter. For you hardy water lilies in colder climates, if our pond is likely to freeze solid, you must move our pot to the deepest part of the pond, below the freeze line. This protects our tender tuber from turning to ice.
We are now asleep. Our visible life has retreated into the tuber buried in the pot at the bottom of the pond. If you have ensured we are safe below the ice, you can largely forget about us until spring. Just ensure a hole is kept open in the ice to allow for gas exchange; this is crucial for the health of the entire pond ecosystem, including any fish. Do not disturb us. We are gathering our strength, waiting for the warm embrace of the spring sun to begin the beautiful cycle all over again.
