Help rejuvenating a water lily.
Hostafan1
Posts: 34,044
We have a pond in the garden with a couple of mature water lilies.
About 18 months ago we had a visit from, we think, an otter who not only ate over 30 fish in one night , but , in doing so disturbed all the plants in the pond.
The base of the lilies are now sticking out of the surface of the pond and they have ugly long stems arching almost 2m long.
They are very beautiful, but I'd like to sort the whole pond out and wonder if anyone can give any advice on the lilies. Do you cut the top back and they resprout from the base, or do you somehow take " tip cuttings" and start again.
Devon.
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The usual way is to divide them, I cut the root system up with something like a bread knife, and put them in new baskets. Dividing them up will bring back nice large leaves and strong flowers.
Thanks Gemma,
What do I do about these great long trunks they have now? The pond is only a couple of feet deep. If I cut them back to stumps, will new shoots / leaves develop?
They are so beautiful , I'm terrified of losing them.
Yep they should grow back again from the base, my leaves are just dead and rotting right now, but they will come back from the root system. So I would just cut them back and look forward to the new growth.
I'll get a photo this afternoon and add it later. I'd appreciate your comments.
You can cut the vast majority of the 'trunk' off. As long as you have the buds and a small amount of root to replant they will do fine.
Here is the forementioned disaster area
sorry about the lateness of posting the photo but I hope it might help.
salvage the growing tips of the rhizomes by cutting them about 6 inches long, make sure they have a growing point and some roots and pot them up then remove the old rhizomes and compost them, the new growing tips might not flower this year but will flower next year.
now I'm confused. What to do? Re-root tip,or cut back to stump?
suppose in theory, I could do both??