The Elusive Nymphea

Hi All,

Back again on my blog with a set of beautiful things to share! A little self learnt knowledge on how to create a beautiful lily pond at the confines of your small balcony!!

Water Lilies are gorgeous! They are so beautiful and can transform any dull corner in your balcony into a beautiful ecosystem! I started off with absolutely zero knowledge on caring for water lilies. Initially like minded friends who had water ponds themselves shared their knowledge and shared some plants, a lily, farm bhrami that grows in water, water lettuce and some duckweed. This was the beginning. However, unfortunately because I did not know how to care for them the right way, I lost the lily. The duck weed and farm bhrami flourished. 

To overcome the grief of losing a precious lily, I requested my spouse to buy one more for me, this time I badly wanted to get it right. And voila, this lily bloomed. It was my first bloom ever and I was elated.

The First beauty!

However, after the bloom the plant did not throw up new leaves at all.. All the leaves perished. It was December by then and I was kind of sad about my failures. I decided not to buy any more lily plants and kill them. Because other water plants were growing in the same container, I decided to just let them be.

Then sometime in March, I saw one green leaf on the soil inside the pond. Initially I thought it was a duckweed that had sunk in! I didn't do anything about it though and just let it be. All this while, the guppies in my pond had multiplied and a beautiful ecosystem was established. Then one day, silly me, I tried to take out the leaves inside and that is when I saw a stem attached to it!!!!!! Voila, I was jumping with joy! A lily plant had come up inside! And I dint even know it! As the summer sunshine did good to my pond, I had many Lily babies coming up inside!! By this time, the farm bhrami had overtaken the pond. It's roots had spread everywhere and had grown like a jungle.

 But I was scared to disrupt anything for the fear of losing anything. I guess God must have heard me, for very soon, I came across a knowledgeable store for lilies. The owner of this store who has now become a friend, took the extra effort to educate me with the nuances when growing water lilies. She gave me the confidence to separate the babies in my pond and put them in multiple ponds so as to enable them to grow bigger. She shared knowledge on tropical and hardy varieties and their differences, which helped me understand lilies better. And so recently i separated all the baby lilies in my pond. I felt this is good knowledge to share and hence this blog post.

When i separated the baby lilies, I had both big and really tiny babies. Also, i got one tuber! Before separating, I moved all the water in the container to another container, so that the fishes wont have any discomfort. Below are some pictures of lily babies and the tuber i had. 

The Tuber sprouting!

Lily Babies

Lily Baby can be really small too! 

The next step is to root them in soil in a container. Take any container without holes and add red soil to it. You could add very little compost to it too along with the soil. 

Make a small dent with your finger and place the baby lily inside this. If you are rooting a tuber, keep it in soil such that the sprouted leaves face upwards. Top it with a layer of sand, so that the roots do not float when placed in water. Adding sand is very important, please do not miss this step.

Now its time to lower it in an existing water pond or if this is your first time, you could use a wide tub about 2 feet deep. Place this container inside the empty tub and add water around it, so that the lily leaves start floating. At this juncture, add fishes in the pond. Fishes are really important to keep the water clean and avoid stagnation of water and the resulting mosquito menace. Please do not skip adding fishes. Guppies/mollies do well for such water ponds. If the lily babies are really small, make sure water above the lily plant is just one inch high. 

After a few days, the baby lily will establish and grow new leaves, which will start getting bigger. 

If you feel that the container is too small, repeat the same process of adding soil and sand in another bigger container without holes and transfer the lily into it. However, now you can add more water around the plant because its established. Lilies are heavy feeders, meaning they need to be fertilized periodically. A good way to fertilize them is to add dry cow manure to the soil. However, you should take care to not add too much and also make sure nutrients are released slowly. For this, make a cone with a plastic cover, add little dry cow manure to it, seal the open end of the cone and tie a stone to the cone using a thread. Lower this cone into the soil that houses the lily periodically. It will give good results. Lilies need about a minimum of 4-5 hours of sun daily and will do very well in all balconies! That is really good news isn't it? :)

And slowly, one fine day, you will have lovely lily plant with big pads (leaves) and regular blooms. There are many varieties among lilies and I am still a novice when it comes to identifying them. For now, I have these in my balcony along with lots of baby lilies who are yet to be identified.

Tropical variety - White Capensis

Hardy variety - Colorado

And if you think this is too much of maintenance, its really not. The fishes keep the pond clean. Water evaporation occurs over a period of time and so add fresh water to the pond every few days. Also. you can upcycle any useful container to house a lily pond. Because lilies do not require much depth to grow, you can even consider shallow tubs or broken buckets. Neatly cover them up and use them. Here's an example of an upcycled water garden at my balcony. Brownie points for guessing what is used there :) 

So, if you have read this post, until this point, I am hoping you will get inspired to start a water garden in a small space that you can afford. Its beautiful to watch the fishes play around, the lilies blooming and its has a wonderful calming effect on our otherwise occupied minds!

Cheers,

Vasu