starting hardy water lilies inside

i live in ottawa on, canada and have a 500 gallon pond setup in my
back yard. right now it's covered in about a foot of ice and snow. i
removed all my fish in the fall last year and left them in a large
aquarium. i was thinking of doing the same for my water lilies.

last year i trimmed all the floating leaves and put them back in the
water. they quickly grew submerged leaves and then the pond froze
over. i was thinking if i pulled them out and started them now, i
would probably have a longer flowering season for them.

it won't be warm enough to put them back outside until april or may,
probably the end of may at that. my worry is they would grow too
quickly in a few motnhs, but if i leave them outside, i may only get
a month or two of flowering. what do you guys think?


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On 26 Feb 2005 11:12:24 -0600, lid (Roop) wrote:

i live in ottawa on, canada and have a 500 gallon pond setup in my
back yard. right now it's covered in about a foot of ice and snow. i
removed all my fish in the fall last year and left them in a large
aquarium. i was thinking of doing the same for my water lilies.

last year i trimmed all the floating leaves and put them back in the
water. they quickly grew submerged leaves and then the pond froze
over. i was thinking if i pulled them out and started them now, i
would probably have a longer flowering season for them.

it won't be warm enough to put them back outside until april or may,
probably the end of may at that. my worry is they would grow too
quickly in a few motnhs, but if i leave them outside, i may only get
a month or two of flowering. what do you guys think?

I think you've got a good idea.

Afterall, I keep my tropicals inside all winter and they don't go out till
end of May, 1st of June, depending on the weather. Especially since your
hardies have had their needed cold season, bringing them in and getting
them going isn't a bad idea. Assuming you have the space and addequate
light for them. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

I live in Ohio and leave the gold fish in the ponds (3) over the
winter... use a de-icer when the temperture drops to freezing. It is a
floating stock pond heater, can be purchased in a farm supply store.
Some of the fish have survived sence 1994.The heater is located in the
lower pond with a pump running to circulate the water and keeps all
three ponds from freezing over.
The ponds are 350 to 450 gallons and from 24" to 36" deep.
Regards the water lilies it may be worth taking them out for a earlier
start. I leave them in the bottom of the ponds...just lazy I guess!!!!
Waiting for Spring!!!
Richard

"Roop" wrote in message
...
it won't be warm enough to put them back outside until april or may,
probably the end of may at that. my worry is they would grow too
quickly in a few motnhs, but if i leave them outside, i may only get
a month or two of flowering. what do you guys think?
==================================
Do you have a bright sunroom to keep them in? They wont thrive unless they
get lots of sunlight. Also keep in mind they can spread 4 to 5' across.
--
Carol.... the frugal ponder...
"WORK HARDER, millions in Welfare depend on you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

thanks for the input guys!

i went out there. there was about 18" of snow. under that there was a
foot of ice. i had several ideas on how to break through it. i tried
drilling through, sawing it and finally tried to melt it with fire.
those all failed misserably. i took out my trusty axe and that cut
through it like butter.

i'm glad i took my fish out. there was a strong sulfer smell. i'd
imagine there were lethal ammounts of hydrogen sulfide. i grabbed the
4 pots containing lilies. none were rotted. they all had submerged
leaves and one even had a flower bud. there was about a good foot of
non-frozen water.

if anyone else wishes to try this, here's what i suggest:

clear off the snow with a shovel. use a long drill bit to find out how
thick the ice is. make sure you don't hit the liner and axe away. make
sure you use safety goggles, the ice can move very fast and it's very
sharp.

put the lillies in a container with water from the pond and also ice
from the pond. you don't want to drop plants that were in 2°C water
into 20°C.

next thing i'm going to do is get a couple aquariums and some
shoplights. i have many planted aquariums so i have a pretty good
idea on how to grow aquatic plants indoors. i'm going to let the ice
melt on it's own, so somewhat simulate spring... in about 24 hours.


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here are some pics if you guys want to take a look. they are about
200kb each.

http://www.rserve.biz/aquatics/ponds/winter/


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Remember the Elton John Album "Madman Across the Water"? Don't know why
that song comes to mind.... The image of you out there with your ax however
is one that will pop up every time it seems winter has lasted too long....



"Roop" wrote in message
...
thanks for the input guys!

i went out there. there was about 18" of snow. under that there was a
foot of ice. i had several ideas on how to break through it. i tried
drilling through, sawing it and finally tried to melt it with fire.
those all failed misserably. i took out my trusty axe and that cut
through it like butter.

i'm glad i took my fish out. there was a strong sulfer smell. i'd
imagine there were lethal ammounts of hydrogen sulfide. i grabbed the
4 pots containing lilies. none were rotted. they all had submerged
leaves and one even had a flower bud. there was about a good foot of
non-frozen water.

if anyone else wishes to try this, here's what i suggest:

clear off the snow with a shovel. use a long drill bit to find out how
thick the ice is. make sure you don't hit the liner and axe away. make
sure you use safety goggles, the ice can move very fast and it's very
sharp.

put the lillies in a container with water from the pond and also ice
from the pond. you don't want to drop plants that were in 2°C water
into 20°C.

next thing i'm going to do is get a couple aquariums and some
shoplights. i have many planted aquariums so i have a pretty good
idea on how to grow aquatic plants indoors. i'm going to let the ice
melt on it's own, so somewhat simulate spring... in about 24 hours.


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On 26 Feb 2005 (Roop) amazed us with:

here are some pics if you guys want to take a look. they are about
200kb each.

http://www.rserve.biz/aquatics/ponds/winter/

I'm in shock, totally dismayed. Ah.... is this your first pond winter?

Here I was, getting a jump on the season (I thought) when I went out and
took the screening off my lily pond today. The water is a chilly 40F.
Looking at my lilies, I could see nothing happening, so even though we've
had lovely above normal temps during the day (high 50s), we've had below
normal temps at night (20s). So today's planned lily pond chores will be
left for another weekend after a few warm nights. Today I did clean up the
irises and arrowheads, tomorrow I will do the lotus. The day after, weather
permitting (as I have Monday & Tuesday off) I'll doing yard pruning, too
early to do any raking or cleaning till the frogs wake up.

Needless to say, so glad everything isn't under that much snow, and if it
were. I sure wouldn't be digging for it. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

Hey Carol. I was going to start them was 80 watt florescent lighting.
if they really get going it'll be going up to 240 watts. i got a 40
gallon tank for them. it's 36"x16"x18".

i do not plan on keeping them in there any longer than i have to. as
soon as it's warm enough, they are going outside. all i really want
from them is some floating leaves and good growth, nothing more.

i'll also setting for them maintaining their current size and not
rotting.


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lol! thanks jedi. i'm glad i'll be in someone's memories. it was a
really warm day out. it was over freezing so i was out in my shorts
and t-shirt.


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