To Pot Or Not?
Go natural when planting your water lilies – hide those pots! Planting pockets help you do this. Hopefully these have been excavated into your pond, if not, you can create them with rocks right on the liner. Place the potted lily into the pocket and cover with rocks to hide the pots.
Fertilizing
Fertilizing water lilies is necessary to encourage a greater number of larger flowers. Time-released, granular fertilizer, mixed into the soil at the bottom of the pot or plant pocket is a great way to fertilize lilies at the time of planting. Any other time, however, it would be messy and inconvenient. That’s when lily fertilizer tablets work great.
How To Plant Marginals
In a rock and gravel pond, marginal plants are generally placed directly into the gravel. This allows them to thrive naturally, and filter the water more effectively. Invasive species should be kept in pots that are buried in the rocks and gravel. Well-behaved plants can be taken out of the pots and planted directly in the gravel where the roots can absorb nutrients directly from the substrate of the pond where fish waste and other organic debris settle and begin to decompose.
Choose the area you wish to place the plant, move the gravel aside with your hands, place the plant, and spread the gravel around the base to support the plant and hide the pot. If you’re planting bare-root, remove the plant from the pot and wash away any loose soil before planting. Tropicals that you plan to bring indoors over the winter, should be left in the pots to make removal easier.
