Nymphaea candida problem

[Billabong Karen]

Does anyone have expertise with these water lilies? I bought one from a garden centre earlier this year, followed all the instructions, repotted it in a basket using water lily earth, and immersed the plant slowly, starting at around 10cm depth and finally ending up at about 40 cm. The lily sends out leaves regularly, and also did have one bud, which however never flowered properly. The leaves do not seem to last very long, and turn brown after a week or so, so that even though new leaves are growing all the time, there are never more than about 7 or 8 leaves. I thought it was going to be much more vigorous, giving plenty of shade to the pond (which is in half shade, getting around 4 - 5 hours of sun a day). Any ideas or advice??

[Deb London]

I don't think this plant likes the shade. This is a dwarf water lily isn't it? 40 cm sounds very deep (I've got a full size one and it did well at this depth for many years).

[Kayleigh]

I had one in my barrel 12" deep for around 3 years that flowered every year until last years hard frost as they re not entirely hardy.

[Billabong Karen]

Kayleigh, was your barrel in full sun? I dont know what to do about this water lily. It now has seven green leaves, and three browning ones... It is not what I would call a happy lily!!

[Kayleigh]

It was in the afternoon sun but the water would warm up quick in there..
I would fish it out into more shallow water it might be happier there then over winter it in the house or greenhouse it will be starting to die down now anyway as the season is closing in its very Autumnal here now and cold at night so don't expect it pick up this year..
How old is the plant as they take a few years to establish this also has to be taken into account..
Don't over winter it in shallow water as the frost will kill it treat it as a tender perennial.

[King Edward]

I don't see why you'd need to bring this in over the winter - I think it's meant to be fully hardy. In fact, keeping it warm might stress it more. You could move it up to perhaps 25cm deep and see if it does any better - it's not going to get frosted at that depth.

[Billabong Karen]

I dont think I'll be bringing the lily indoors. It was sold to me (this spring) as a hardy perennial, so it will have to take its chances... I will fish it into somewhat shallow water though, and see if that helps.

The instructions said it should be in 30 - 50 cm of water. I have it at about 30 cm now (about 12 inches), but I am wondering - do the instructions on water depth refer to total depth, or depth above the top of the pot??? This has confused me quite a bit planting up the pond; with some plants such as creeping jenny the instructions were to put the pot in 5 - 10 cm of water, but that meant that the top of the pot was ABOVE the waterline... so in the end I moved the pot in a bit deeper, so the top of the pot was just below the water. Any advice?

[King Edward]

Water depth refers to above the pot surface, not from the bottom of the pot. Creeping-Jenny is different, since it's more a plant of damp shady areas rather than an actual aquatic.

[Billabong Karen]

Right, thanks. I'll rescue the creeping jenny from the water then and plant it in the damp patch to the side. I'll try the lily in slightly shallower water where there is a bit more sunlight and hope it does better next spring... Thanks for the input much appreciated. Karen

[Kayleigh]

Mine must have been a different one then as the one I had was not frost hardy.