Central Virginia Organic Gardener

"And 'tis my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes." - William Wordsworth, 1798

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Water lily



Love water lilies but don't have a pond? I have a pond, but the water moves too much- the water lily likes its water still. But if you have a large enough water holding container (thank you Madeline for this galvanized round water trough) you can have a super dwarf water lily (this one purchased from Lilypons http://www.lilypons.com/ ). It was easy to plant in a plastic container without holes (to prevent soil from leaking out) topped with cleaned gravel (ditto). I also gave it a pond plant fertilizer tab and put a quarter of a mosquito dunk (made from the natural bacteria BT) in to prevent mosquitoes from hatching. I dyed the water black with pond dye to hide the pot. In the winter I will lower the water a lot, and put it in my garage for shelter and top it back up with water. I think it looks very nice on my back deck.
Happy gardening!

3 comments:

Anita said...

A small piece of the vast beauty of plants.

Is there a price for this beauty, like mosquitos?

A certain family member, who shall remain nameless, is always concerned about mosquities and their proximity to water.

Judy Thomas said...

Hi Anita,
No mosquito problem at all- I use an organic BT product that kills the larvae- I also use it in my pond!

Anita said...

I'll have to find out if we've ever used this.

Thanks.