It is possible to have a beautiful water garden without water lilies, but you should have at least one. The plants are grown not only for the beautiful and sometimes fragrant blossoms, but also for the big shiny leaves frogs and dragonflies love. They shade the water and keep your fish cool and provide hiding places and keep the algae growth down. All water lilies belong to the genus NYMPHEA. There are hardy water lilies and tropical day bloomers and tropical night bloomers and there are miniatures in all three categories. Tropical are considered the largest and showiest of all water lilies. Flowers of day bloomers open in mid morning and close in late afternoon. Flowers of night bloomers open in late afternoon and close the following morning. Blooms open for three to four days while next blooms continue in succession. Tropical hold their flowers above the water. They should not be placed in the pond before the water temperature is a steady above 70 degrees. Temperatures below 70 degrees may cause plants to go dormant and/or die. Tropical water lilies also come on a wide variety of colors and in blues and purples. Shades you will not find in hardy water lilies. Water lilies like full sun, at least six hours a day and calm water. They are planted in big shallow containers. They are heavy feeders and need to be fertilized once a month with aquatic fertilizer tabs. It is of course not practical to pull these plants out of the pond once a month to fertilize them and people neglect this and wonder why their lilies do not perform. There are all season fertilizer spikes available. These are expensive but worth while, the performance is amazing. Most people treat their tropical lilies like annuals and just let them die in fall. Of course if you have sun room or a greenhouse you can winter them over. You also can pull the plant out of the pond and let it dry out. During that time the plant produces tubers which can be stored in an aquarium or a jar. Some species are viviparous which means they produce fully developed plants on their leaves. These plants can be over wintered because the mother plant does not produce tubers.

Hardy water lilies stay in the pond all year long. In fall the leaves die and in spring the plant produces new leaves and flowers. These plants profit from all season fertilizer spikes as well. Hardy water lilies come in white, pink, yellow, peach and red, as well as so-called changeable, which present an array of colors. Hardies open around 9 am. And close around 3 and 5 pm. Lilies need to be repotted when the leaves are piling upon each other and the number of blooms decrease and the leaves yellow early. Not all water lilies are equal and it is good to know your variety and its performance. Some like greater depth than others some need more sun, more space, some bloom more heavily.

PLANT OF THE MONTH: Nymphea Pink Grapefruit, Colorado
I tried different colors in my main pond and have decided that peach is my favorite color. Of all the water lilies I am growing Pink Grapefruit and Colorado are my most favorites. Both plants have that beautiful elegant peach and I really cannot make up my mind which one I like better. To start with Colorado, This is an easy plant to grow. It is happy what ever situation you give it. It does well in 18 inches or 3 feet. It adapts to a small pond or a large area. It even takes some shade and it is a good bloomer putting out these lovely flowers starting very early in the season till frost. Pink Grapefruit takes a year to get established but than it can't be beat. The flowers are gorgeous. Similar to Colorado but much bigger and showier. The plant also is much bigger and not as adaptable to a smaller pond. Both plants are my all-time favorites.