Water lilies are extremely easy to care for! Once you bring it home from the nursery drop it into 1 1/2 – 3 feet of water for most lilies. Perry’s Baby Red Lily needs shallower water. You could set the container on sturdy blocks if your pond is too deep. Keep your lilies well fed with aquatic plant fertilizer available at Shady Creek. Water lilies get so much larger and bloom MUCH more if they are adequately fed (and they’re VERY hungry!) Four fertilizer tablets every 3 weeks or so during the growing season. Dig them down into the soil at the roots of the plant and cover with soil so the fertilizer doesn’t dissolve into the pond water and create excess algae.
After about two years your lily will need to be divided. The tuber by then will be growing up, out and over the side of your container. Cut 6-8″ of the growing end of the tuber and re-pot into average garden soil, not potting soil. Cover with a layer of rock, fertilize and drop back into the pond.
Winter Care – Late in the fall snip off all the foliage. Keep the lily on the bottom of the pond. In the spring, fertilize and watch it grow!