Elaine T wrote:

Home Depot got some pond plants in for cheap so I thought I'd give them
a try. I don't trust the info on the tags, though. How deep water do I
need over the pot surface of...

Iris ensata - Japanese Iris. The white one says 2-5", while the the
purple one says 5-10"

Pontederia cordata - Pickerel weed. The carton says 8-12"

Those, I believe, would be _maximums_. Either one will thrive in wet soil,
they don't need any water over their crowns.

I also got a lily. It's got a few tiny leaves and I'm not sure how to
tell which side of the tuber is going to grow. It's hardy, so my
understanding is that I put it on one side of a pot and it will grow
across it, right?

There's different kinds of hardy lily tuber too. I stopped actually
planting lilies - just fasten them to a weight, and drop them in the pond!
- so I really can't recall which end you expect to grow. The important
rule is to keep the crown where those leaves emerge above the soil line.
--
derek