Hello all,
I just got my first lilly blooms and I have yet to see them. My wife tells me
that they opened this morning but when I got home 4:00 PM they were closed.
what are the open times of lilly blooms and approximately how long do they
last?
Thanks,
-Pat

Flowering on waterlilies has some variables...
In a temperate area where there are cool summers, you can have a lot
of buds waiting for a rare hot day and you can get exceptional
'flurries' of numbers of buds flowering, while in a hot climate, the
buds can pop in dribs and drabs, ones and twoses...

Hardy day blooming water lilies flower usually for four days, early
blooms in the year can be a little on the pale side which can cause a
bit of confusion when you compare them to what you were expecting.

There's a range of flowering habit's, a froebeli might start early in
May, while other varieties may not start until June, Helvola tends to
leave it until late Summer before showing off.

The time of day can vary too, from one variety to the next, you may
notice on dull days the water lilies will be open a lot longer, than
on a hot sunny day.

If you are lucky and its a prolific flowering hardy variety, it might
put up six blooms at a time when it has established and in its second
year.

Coarse varieties might throw up one bud for every thirty leaves, with
a fair chance the odd bud is smothered by the foliage

Tropicals tend to start flowering at midsummer, I think they are
influenced by the day length, while the hardies just go nuts all
summer when the temperature suits them. Some flower late, helvola
seems to do that...

There is definitely a 'sequence' to the hardies, one of the days I'll
record what it is and the temperatures. Usually I'm fretting to
photograph them at their best rather than to document their botanical
quirks, doh!

Regards, Andy

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


(O3raledale) wrote in message ...
Hello all,
I just got my first lilly blooms and I have yet to see them. My wife tells me
that they opened this morning but when I got home 4:00 PM they were closed.
what are the open times of lilly blooms and approximately how long do they
last?
Thanks,
-Pat

Xref: kermit rec.ponds:128386

Of the 3 lilies I have in z5, 2 hardy, 1 tropical day blooming, they all
open fully by around 9:30 a.m. (start opening around 8:00) and close up by
around 4:30 p.m. There are night blooming tropicals (tropical lilies not
being hardy in z5, much bigger spread, more floriferous, more choice of
colors) that bloom at night, opening around the time the day blooming ones
close.

Like you, I work all day. So I purchased some night bloomers. They opened up
at 4 or so in the afternoon, and stayed open until 10 or so in the morning
(or until the sun reached them). Then they closed. The flowers are good for
3 days or so. Be sure to "dead-head" the blooms (of all your lilies) to
encourage more blooming: the purpose of the flowers is to make seeds; the
purpose of the seeds is to make more plants. Remove the flowers as soon as
they're spent, before they can seed, and Mother Nature says "AWK! need more
flowers to make seeds!" and so the vicious cycle begins! (Sometimes it IS
nice to fool Mother Nature!)

Lee

"O3raledale" wrote in message
...
Hello all,
I just got my first lilly blooms and I have yet to see them. My wife tells
me
that they opened this morning but when I got home 4:00 PM they were
closed.
what are the open times of lilly blooms and approximately how long do they
last?
Thanks,
-Pat

My advice, if you want to see the lilies and are not home during the day, is to
have someone pick the lily when it is in bloom and put it into the freezer.
They freeze beautifully; if you leave it there long enough, it will freeze dry
nicely.

Thanks everyone for the lilly bloom tips. I got out there this morning and saw
the beauty. cool.
Thanks again,
-Pat
(I learn something new everyday here)