Hello all,

As it is winter here (UK) and the leaves have all died off, I thought it was
time I pruned my water lilly but when I lifted it from the pond it was a
mass of roots, etc. It has literally consumed the pot it was in. The
rootball must be 50 time bigger than when I bought it a couple of years ago.

Please can anyone help with tips on the best way to prune, propagate, etc as
I haven't done anything like this before. I can see some new plants among
the roots that I imagine can be propagated.

Thanks in advance,

John.

JRB wrote:

Hello all,

As it is winter here (UK) and the leaves have all died off, I thought it
was time I pruned my water lilly but when I lifted it from the pond it was
a mass of roots, etc. It has literally consumed the pot it was in. The
rootball must be 50 time bigger than when I bought it a couple of years
ago.

That's normal.

Please can anyone help with tips on the best way to prune, propagate, etc
as I haven't done anything like this before. I can see some new plants
among the roots that I imagine can be propagated.

Go wild! Cut it at any point between crowns (the growing tips). You can
keep or discard any large portions without crowns - discarding them will
slow down growth at the beginning of next growing season, but mean you
won't need to do this again too soon.

Find someone else who wants a lily or five :-) Then put as many as you want
back in the pond _bare root_, and wired to a rock or other good weight.
Some people find their lilies don't thrive that way, but it sounds like
yours is essentially bare-root already and doing fine, so it'll really
simplify things next time you need to divide them. I like to keep them
bare-root to get maximum extraction of nutrients from the pond.

Lilies are extremely tolerate of being divided and yours is super healthy,
so you should have no fears about being extreme.
--
derek

Cutting them into pieces will create large wounds which will not heal until
the plants starts growing again. Wait until spring though you can do it now
if you must.

JRB wrote:

As it is winter here (UK) and the leaves have all died off, I thought it
was time I pruned my water lilly but when I lifted it from the pond it was
a mass of roots, etc. It has literally consumed the pot it was in. The
rootball must be 50 time bigger than when I bought it a couple of years
ago.

I had the same experience except my one water lilly was over 20 years
old in a former swimming pool. When the pool was drained, there was
tangled mess of 2 to 2.5 black plastic pipe which I knew couldn't be in
there. Upon looking closer, it was the tuber of the one water lilly.
It had formed a tangled mess covering the 15'x45' pool.

Please can anyone help with tips on the best way to prune, propagate,
as I haven't done anything like this before. I can see some new plants
among the roots that I imagine can be propagated.

This was in the fall and I wasn't ready to replant them since we were
just starting a project make this into a pond. I saved a couple dozen
pieces of the tuber that didn't have any spots of rot in them. They
were about 8" to 12" long. I wanted to keep them from rotting, but
didn't want them to dry out so I put them in a black plastic bag with
peat moss. I put in a little water to moisten the peat moss, but not
make it the least bit wet. Then I sealed the bag for the winter and
placed it in my cool basement. In the spring I planted the best 12
pieces and 10 of them grew into nice lilies.

That was 2 years ago and this spring I will divide the lilies again.
--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
18,000 gallon (17'x 47'x 2-4') lily pond garden in Zone 6
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA