This is perhaps not quite a simple as it seems !

Some idiot got into the garden last night and emptied something into
the pond which obviously has a high detergent content as we returned
from a night away to a pond covered in deep foam stirred up by the
pump. I haven't discovered yet what damage has occurred to the plants
and fauna.

I've effectively pumped out the pond now and done one refill aiming to
pump it out again tomorrow with the hope that two flushes plus a bit of
sunshine will clear the problem, but realised that I now have a good
opportunity to address the over zealous lilies in the pond - actually
that's probably unfair to the lilies as I gather that they do expand
fairly vigorously and 'pruning' is necessary every so often, though
possibly not in mid summer !

But with a nearly empty pond and huge amounts of lily growth I think I
would be daft not to take advantage and do some tidying up - but the
question is how ? The pond is nominally 10 ft diameter and 3 ft deep
and the root mass of the two lilies is pretty large - do I just go in
with a spade and reduce the plant mass ? ... or what ?

Anybody in the Ediburgh area want some water lilies ?

Rob

Rob wrote
This is perhaps not quite a simple as it seems !

Some idiot got into the garden last night and emptied something into
the pond which obviously has a high detergent content as we returned
from a night away to a pond covered in deep foam stirred up by the
pump. I haven't discovered yet what damage has occurred to the plants
and fauna.

I've effectively pumped out the pond now and done one refill aiming to
pump it out again tomorrow with the hope that two flushes plus a bit of
sunshine will clear the problem, but realised that I now have a good
opportunity to address the over zealous lilies in the pond - actually
that's probably unfair to the lilies as I gather that they do expand
fairly vigorously and 'pruning' is necessary every so often, though
possibly not in mid summer !

But with a nearly empty pond and huge amounts of lily growth I think I
would be daft not to take advantage and do some tidying up - but the
question is how ? The pond is nominally 10 ft diameter and 3 ft deep
and the root mass of the two lilies is pretty large - do I just go in
with a spade and reduce the plant mass ? ... or what ?

Anybody in the Ediburgh area want some water lilies ?

It's actually best done when they are in growth anyway unlike most land
plants so it should be Ok.
Yes, go in with a spade and chop out what you don't want, mind the liner if
it's lined, you may find the best newest most vigorous growths are outside
any pot so you will probably have to repot those and throw away the old
stuff. Filthy job! :-)
What variety/colour are they?

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK

Rob wrote...

Bob Hobden wrote:
Rob wrote
This is perhaps not quite a simple as it seems !

Some idiot got into the garden last night and emptied something into
the pond which obviously has a high detergent content as we returned
from a night away to a pond covered in deep foam stirred up by the
pump. I haven't discovered yet what damage has occurred to the plants
and fauna.

I've effectively pumped out the pond now and done one refill aiming to
pump it out again tomorrow with the hope that two flushes plus a bit of
sunshine will clear the problem, but realised that I now have a good
opportunity to address the over zealous lilies in the pond - actually
that's probably unfair to the lilies as I gather that they do expand
fairly vigorously and 'pruning' is necessary every so often, though
possibly not in mid summer !

But with a nearly empty pond and huge amounts of lily growth I think I
would be daft not to take advantage and do some tidying up - but the
question is how ? The pond is nominally 10 ft diameter and 3 ft deep
and the root mass of the two lilies is pretty large - do I just go in
with a spade and reduce the plant mass ? ... or what ?

Anybody in the Ediburgh area want some water lilies ?

It's actually best done when they are in growth anyway unlike most land
plants so it should be Ok.
Yes, go in with a spade and chop out what you don't want, mind the liner
if
it's lined, you may find the best newest most vigorous growths are
outside
any pot so you will probably have to repot those and throw away the old
stuff. Filthy job! :-)
What variety/colour are they?

Many thanks Bob - guess what I'm about to go and do !! And as for
where to pots are .. what I've seen is just one great root mass, and
somewhere there is / was a 10 " koi.

Varieties - James Brydon; pot fell to the bottom some years ago and is
happily living at 3 feet, and a medium sized white one which I can't
remember the name of.

The foaming has damaged some of the leaves but the rest seems OK at the
moment. It's a stone lined pond so the liner is protected and I can
walk in with impunity (I think!)

Personally I don't use lily baskets as they have tiny holes all round for
the soil to wash away over time, the roots can't get through them and they
are not strong enough for a well grown lily, so I've never understood what
purpose they are for.
Get a couple of solid half dustbins or similar (like large deep washing up
bowls) and pot the lilies up in those.
Water plants don't need drainage holes. :-)

I would imagine the white is just the wild one Nymphaea alba or variety of.
Some of the new American varieties are excellent, the "Peach Glow" we bought
a few years ago has big flowers (bigger than "Gladstoniana") the colour of
the name.
http://www.lilieswatergardens.co.uk/...e.asp?cat=A-2B

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
17mls W. of London.UK

Just a follow up to give a warning on attacking a lily root mass !!

I pumped the pond down - found dead fish sadly and applied the spade as
recommended to the mass of roots the lilies had formed - I even found
homes for these. The pond was generally cleaned up and refilled. And
it did look so nice !

However yesterday I noticed that the remaining lily mass was no longer
part of the bottom of the pond but was floating at the surface. I
won't recount my efforts to get this blob of vegetable matter to sink
again, suffice to say that in the end I had to go and get my snorkel
and mask from the attic!! And having cleaned the pond at the beginning
of the week and it did look so nice, I of course stirred up all the
crud that was in the root ball, etc, so this morning was spent pumping
it all out again and refilling it with fresh water.

So if you do go in to trim your water lily make sure that you don't
remove in the process what is holding it down - at least if you do,
make sure that the boulder you put on top of it stays where you want it
to stay such that the blasted plant doesn't come back up again !

Rob