It seems to be growing lots of shoots, but it does get some turbulance
from the waterfall.

My questions are this. Should I lower it (the stalks are around 8" to
the leaves). Should I get another (I thought one would be more than
enough?) Should I transplant it (the store said no, container size did
not matter).

Anything else I am forgetting? I do have a couple of Koi...



You have had some atrocious advice there. They should have warned your
water lilies struggle by moving water, that koi can wreck a waterlily
trying to start up and that 4" pot is hopelessly inadequate to start a
water lily in. Heres some basics about getting a water lily to thrive:

ts not unusual for a lily to flower about four weeks after potting up,
in summer. Some lilies are more prolific than others, and much will
depend on the condition of the water lilies roots at the time of
planting

Lilies have two types of roots, feeder roots (no branching, often 4"
to 6" long... these do all the work)
and tether roots (much longer, many branches)

If your lily had intact feeder roots when it was planted, it may not
notice it has been moved... if the feeder roots were destroyed in
moving, the lilies chances of survival may be seriously set back,
possibly fatally

Feeder roots may take a month or so to establish... then they start a
cycle of leaves, then buds...

Some lilies have very low rates of buds to leaves, some very high
flower ratios

The ph of a pool can make a big difference too, if the ph is way over
8ph, that may well hamper the plant...

A lily tub can be as simple as a black bucket, try not to be tempted
to use the silly weave baskets that are sold in retailers, they do
nothing to stop any grazing fish from wrecking the brittle feeder
root tips... any ordinary garden soil is fine with a good proportion
of clay in it, many lilies will only thrive when they get the trace
minerals that clay is loaded with.... pinning the rhisome down with
some large stones usually works, to hold it down while roots are
formed. Make sure the growing point of the crown gets daylight, and
has plenty of room to grow across the bucket... As big a tub as
possible will keep it going longer, once established the lily tub's
main function is to anchor the mass of foliage...while not so large
you can't lift it out for future pruning... a few 'stab' holes every
4" or so should be adequate to ventilate the soil so it doesn't go off
(turns acidic) within the confines of the container

regards, andy
http://www.members.aol.com/abdavisnc/swglist.html
(andys aquatic plant list for interesting swaps)