Lily Pads

Dany Millikin: We’re going to talk about something that I don’t really know much about: water gardening. Luckily Anita Nelson is here and she’s the pro on this. So this is a water lily. I know that much.

Anita Nelson: Yup. It surely is. And here we have this beautiful blue flower.

Dany Millikin: It is absolutely gorgeous.

Anita Nelson: Yes, and it is starting to close because water lilies open in the morning and then they close at night.

Dany Millikin: Oh, wow. So this is on the tail end of it.

Anita Nelson: This is on the tail end-

Dany Millikin: That is so neat.

Anita Nelson: And it’s starting to close because this is toward the end of the day.

Dany Millikin: It’s filled with liquid. Is that water?

Anita Nelson: No, that’s nectar.

Dany Millikin: Wow. That makes sense. So to pollinate.

Anita Nelson: To pollinate. It’s pollinated by sweat bees and also by beetles, and then-

Dany Millikin: That’s cool.

Anita Nelson: Then there’s a night blooming water lily as well. So what do you think pollinates it?

Dany Millikin: Night bees.

Anita Nelson: That’s right. Night flying insects come to it at nighttime.

Dany Millikin: Well, it’s awesome it’s pollinated by sweat bees because they’re a true native bee that really… You could have support native insects. That’s awesome.

Anita Nelson: Yes.

Dany Millikin: Well, can we take it out?

Anita Nelson: Yeah. Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dany Millikin: Oh, okay. So it all grows out from the middle.

Anita Nelson: Yeah, and the first thing I want to point out is water lilies do have to grow in a pot of soil.

Dany Millikin: Okay.

Anita Nelson: Yeah. And the new growth comes up in the middle. Look how many buds are on this plant.

Dany Millikin: Oh my gosh.

Anita Nelson: There are six of them.

Dany Millikin: Flowers for days.

Anita Nelson: Yes. You’ll have a flower on every day, if not one or two of them.

Dany Millikin: And look how crazy cool the leaves are.

Anita Nelson: Yeah, they’re all curled up like that.

Dany Millikin: That is so neat.

Anita Nelson: See that one?

Dany Millikin: That is gorgeous. So these older leaves are pretty far away from the plant.

Anita Nelson: That’s right, because this stem, it never stopped lengthening. So the older leaves move out of the way to make room for the new leaves.

Dany Millikin: That is so cool. So let’s put it back in the water.

Anita Nelson: Okay.

Dany Millikin: So when it comes to fertilization, what’s the approach with these?

Anita Nelson: These are fertilized with a special pallet that is designed to dissolve in about 30 seconds after you put it into the soil.

Dany Millikin: Okay, so regular fertilizer’s not what you do. You want special water lily fertilizer.

Anita Nelson: You do. Because these are heavy feeders, they like to be fed twice a month, and that’s why you get that flush of bloom every day.

Dany Millikin: That is awesome. Well, super cool plants. Super cool lady. For more super cool stuff, got to homeshowgardenpros.com