Remove spent lily flowers or not?

[Malcolm Banks]

After about a month of seasonal murkiness, my pond is now clearing but I am still keen to restrict the nutrients in the water where appropriate. The spent buds on my water lilies represent a considerable source of nutirients and I am minded to remove them before they sink to the bottom. Will this affect the lily plants in any undesirable way, considering I have them in basket designed to restrict their spread? Any views/info gratefully recd
M

[kaitkaitkait]

Hi Malcolm, I usually snip off the spent lily heads and fish them out before they can rot too much. Because the flowers are so large and on the basis they're not native (well mine aren't) I figure the pond can do without having to "digest" them, since there's plenty of healthy sludge there already.

Hope this helps.

[Malcolm Banks]

Thanks for the reply KaitKaitkait, I had actually administered the snip following much the same rationale as you. I think my lilies are also non-native since I believe (but not authoritatively) that the native species are considered too big for small to medium ponds??
M