Find out how to sow the water lily
What few people know is that the water lily , of hardly comparable beauty, is not only present in ponds and villas with a garden. Water lilies, especially the dwarf varieties, can also be grown on a simple balcony or terrace. Some of these little plant wonders can even bloom in a bowl full of water, with corollas that don’t even exceed the size of a 50 cent coin!
Is it true that there are water lilies that can live on the terrace?
Of course it is true. Dwarf water lilies have the ability to happily grow 10 to 30 inches deep, which can easily be the size of a bowl.
Growing a dwarf water lily isn’t difficult. What matters is to fill the container intended to house them with decanted tap water and, when the temperature is particularly high, I advise you to top up the level, so that the water lily always has enough water to be able to grow properly.
I suggest you plant your water lily in a mixture of sand , clay and volcanic lapillus , or in decorative pebbles . At the beginning it is preferable to place the bowl in a half-shade position so that, as soon as planted, the plant can take advantage of a few hours of sun. Then it is definitively placed in full sun: the water lilies bloom better and more abundantly.
The fundamental operation to be carried out is to fertilize: as a rule, Osmocote tablets are used to put under the water lily twice a year.
And if you have a large enough bowl, you can combine the water lily with other small specimens of aquatic plants and even small fish, thus generating a miniature ecosystem. To keep the water clear and free from algae, you can add oxygenating plants such as Elodea densa and Myriophyllum .
Sow water lily
The water lily can alternatively also be sown. The seeds will be kept in a jar full of water and then buried in capacious containers with a universal soil mixed with sand and made fertile by adding manure.
Mosquitoes: a threat to be countered
Bowls filled with water generally facilitate the spread of mosquitoes, as they are pools of still and stagnant water. This is precisely the problem that many face when it comes to water lilies on the balcony or terrace. The solution exists. In addition to the small fish, the gambusias, the copepods, tiny shrimps that prey on mosquito larvae, there are also nitrogen vials , an always biological solution, which, forming a veil on the water, prevents the larvae from breathing from the atmosphere. without however causing problems for our pets, should they go to drink in the bowl. They are normally used in biological control: just pour them into the tanks and mosquitoes take care of them.
When do dwarf water lilies bloom?
The flowering of the dwarf water lilies begins, when the winter temperatures are not rigid, already in the month of April. Where, on the other hand, the winter is very harsh and severe, flowering begins much later. However, there is a trick to anticipate the arrival of flowering: that is to repair the bowl from the cold and put it back out in the first warm months. Flowering in the summer extends for some particular varieties, including the dwarf water lilies selected by the breeder Perry Slocum, even up to the month of December.
The varieties I would like to recommend are the ‘Helvola’ pygmy waterlily , characterized by a yellow variegated leaf flower, the alba pygmy waterlily , which is as small as a coin but is a real gem, the ellisian waterlily , which is red with the inside. yellow to create a delicious and valuable strong contrast of colors. With beautiful iridescent flowers there is also the ‘Indian’ water lily , which is capable of giving abundant blooms and producing corollas of more than one color on the same plant: it is truly wonderful because, in a single vase, there really seem to be many different water lilies ! I would say that the variety and choice of varieties is not really lacking when it comes to aquatic plants.
How should you behave in winter with dwarf water lilies?
The hardy dwarf water lilies tolerate the frozen surface, but the water must not freeze deeply until it reaches the vegetative apex: it can happen, for example, if the container is very small. In that specific circumstance it is preferable to cover the bowl or withdraw it, or take the plant and keep it until March even without water but absolutely in moist peat, so that it does not dehydrate. If, on the other hand, the bowl is large and deep, it can also stay out without problems. It will disappear when it rests and will start producing leaves again in spring.
