It puzzles me why walmarts, lowes, home depot 'dump' hundreds of
glitzy boxed water lilies in stores at cheap prices, there obviously
isn't much money to be made as they are deliberately pricing them to
be 'easy' for anyone to buy on impulse....

Nor can there be that many new ponders in that stores area to justify
the number of lilies stocked...

Perhaps they make the real bucks on the less than competitive priced
fibre glass ponds, pumps and junk that the 'impulse' buyer has to
resort to start a pond... knowing full well when the little plastic
pond is bulging at the seams with the monster from the lagoon, they
stand a chance of selling more expensive larger ponds later...

The ponds they stock sure arent big enough for the majority of coarse
waterlilies in those teensy weensy boxes, crafty, that...

You could spend all that money on a way overpriced liner or tub, only
to discover that cheap, sweet little plant resembles something from
the 'little shop of horrors' next year....

e-bay may be your best bet if you want to be careful on price, named
varieties are typically $5 to $15. Buying based on price only is
likely to limit your chance of getting a variety which is worth
getting, as demand can exceed supply, the good ones do sell out.

A lot of poor varieties come onto the market at a good price, needless
to say they are varieties which usually have ghastly invasive
sprawling habits, poor flower to leaf ratios and are often massively
out of proportion when started in anything smaller than a huge farm
pond.

When choosing a waterlily, you really need to do a shortlist based on
size, before anything else, some like to be 1' some 3' wide, others
intend to be 12' wide... When you have say a dozen names of varieties
you like, then its time to shop around...

A further advantage of e-bay is you are likely to be shopping around
folk who have grown the waterlilies, so there's a fair chance of the
waterlily turning out to be something like the description, unlike
those cheapo walmart packs where its quite a chuckle if what grows
remotely resembles the description, lol

Over 100 aquatic plants available!
http://www.members.aol.com/abdavisnc/swglist.html
http://community.webshots.com/user/adavisus
(photo albums of aquatic plants and descriptions)

"Mark T." wrote in message ...
Hello all,

I'm clueless about water lillies and
would appreciate any advice.

I am wondering how much folks pay for
water lillies? Out here in Southern Cal.
I'm seeing them for about $30.00 each.