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EXCLUSIVE CONTENT – World introduction to Ken Landon’s Tropical Waterlily Tuber Storage up to 10 years.

admin — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 21:16:14 +0000

This video is exclusive, it can be shared with permission. Ken Landon recently (Sept 2010) shared his way of tropical lily tuber storage. For years the jar sand method over 1 season has resulted in about 20% mortaility. That of course is not good especially when you have nearly 2000 lilies and 90% of the worlds species material.

Ken explains that for hybridization you need species plants as eventually you run into crappy mutation or genetics just break down and you stop getting nice plants.

Ken still intends on traveling the world to grab some more species material like ‘burtii’ which was lost after Dr. George H Pring’s work with it.

Please watch the 4 part series in FULL SCREEN (720p High Definition) with sound on. Please if ever writiing about the technique be sure to give Mr. Landon credit for bringing this revelation to the public. Enjoy!

Part 1 of 5

Part 2 of 5

Part 3 of 5

Part 4 of 5

BONUS Question & Answer with Ken Landon (Part 5)

Bull’s Eye : A Direct Hit for Red Tropical Waterlilies

admin — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:03:07 +0000

Nymphaea Bull’s Eye: Developed by Florida Aquatics this new waterlily is the most correct Red a tropical day bloomer has achieved until this point. Often hot pink or rosey this adult plant is Red and when very mature nearly maroon.

From Florida Aquatic: The flower color is the real eye-catcher on this lily. The red color is deeper or more of a true red than any lily on the market today. This flower will catch your eye from quite a distance away. Set on a vigorus, compact plant with solid green pads we expect this lily will be well received.
The closest comparison with N. ‘Bulls Eye’ would be N. ‘Jack Wood’ however the flower color of N. ’Bulls Eye’ is much darker than N. ‘Jack Wood’ and the flower has many more petals, up to 50 when mature.

Turn on the volume to hear Tim, the side view in the 2nd half shows realistic color of the flower.

Enjoy in High Definition and Full Screen

Bull’s Eye is currently on display in San Angelo at the International Waterlily Collection 2010.

Bulls Eye can be purchased at www.PondMegastore.com

Blooming Tropical Waterlilies in Indiana, during APRIL?

admin — Sun, 30 May 2010 17:28:03 +0000

Update to Matt Garver’s overwintering of tropicals in Indiana, his plant (Panama Pacific) not only overwintered as we shared with you a few months ago in the Thermoplanter but it began blooming in April. He sent me these photos on April 24th but I have not had much time to update the blog. It is an amazing sight and makes the relatively low cost of the thermoplanter worth while.

Both images © Matthew Garver

Tropical Lilies Survive One of the Coldest Winters in History!

admin — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:43:06 +0000

[See Update March 31 Below]

Matt Garver in Indiana e-mailed me in January that he was going to be overwintering his tropical lilies outside in a half whiskey barrel like container with a built in heater to keep from freezing. The device is known as a thermoplanter.

A couple weeks ago he checked to see how the plants were and we have the photos of what seems to be stable live lilies. I would dub these “Chilly Lillies”.

Kudos goes to Mark Prescott the developer of the thermoplanter. Just a 70 watt heating element has kept plants alive up and down the east coast, to St. Louis, and now north to Northern Indiana. Visit Black River Nursery LLC to see all thermoplanters Mark has developed.

What may help on your first attempt at overwintering a tropical lily is choosing cold tolerant plants. viviparous waterlilies are more cold tolerant as are most star varieties of tropical waterlilies.

Matt notes he has overwintered the purple Panama Pacific Waterlily.

Rich Sacher wrote a nice review of the thermoplanter about two years after its 2006 introduction at pondapalooza for Water Gardeners International. Thermo Planters for Waterlilies and many other plants can be found and read about at Black Creek Nursery and are available from a number of vendors for just $50-$75.

Matt used the thermoplanter unit inside a half whiskey barrel for added protection from the elements on top of gravel instead of an in-ground pond. The heating element sits inside the soil next to the tuber so even if the water above the pot is cool the tuber stays warm enough not to damage. Very nice report and thanks to a Water Garden Blog reader. Anyone is encouraged to share stories and we will check back with Matt as the growth continues to see how early the plant blooms.

[UPDATE MARCH 31 2010] Matt sent in an updated zoomed photo of the Panama Pacfic.]

Winter care of Tropical Waterlilies 2009-2010

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:34:31 +0000

In any given year you would consider water gardeners overwintering tropical waterlilies likley in Northern states. With such short growing seasons in the north its actually people in hardiness zones 6 and south that have more luck overwintering. This winter was long and hard all the way to the Gulf Coast. Darren, a good water garden friend in Austin Texas, recently shared photos of two places indoors he overwintered some really special tropical lilies.

The first is the wonderful ‘Infinite Love’ (aka Daisy), developed by Ken Landon. Since there are probably less than a half dozen of this variety in existence it is great news that the lily is finishing up its indoor stay in very good condition.

In the fall Darren brought Infinite Love into the house in a small container and it has been living without moving water (though partial water changes) in a container in the Kitchen. The big leaves from the summer come off and the plant has gone dormant with little shoots remaining.

The collection in Austin includes a few more tropical lilies including some special varieties from Thailand. Darren has these potted in a similar fashion an kept in the Garage with frequent partial water changes. So far the lilies are doing well and are just a couple weeks away from going back outside. Be sure to let the lilies go without fertilizer while indoors. The plant will have slow if any growth and will focus much of its effort on the tuber under the soil rather than leaves or buds.

Below is the summertime Photo of Nymphaea: Infinite Love which is now in the house.

internationalwaterlilycollection.com

If overwintering lilies is not worth the trouble you can find full grown blooming tropical waterlilies here. Or for lilies that survive all 12 months outside all the way into Canada check out the Hardy Waterlilies.

Cold Nymphaea? Overwintering Tropical Waterlilies

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:19:48 +0000

There are multiple methods used to overwinter Tropical Waterlilies. A few varieties seem to be able to grow indoors with some sunshine and care. A heated greenhouse works very well but few people have access to these. Learn how to locate and store tubers, keep some tropicals in well lit fish tanks and more in the cool articles below (pun totally intended).

Charles Leach wrote a nice piece for Water Gardner’s International using and testing mini thermoheater. You have to be a member of WGI to view the article however its free to sign up! See here.

Another article from the sister site Victoria-Adventurer looks at storing the tubers safely over the winter. See Here.

A third article also from the Victoria Adventurer, by Bob Meyer, looks at overwintering specifically in plant zones 5-6. See here.

A fourth detailed article by Rich Sacher of American Aquatic Gardens, (found also on Victoria Adventurer) talks about overwintering tropicals in the south. See here.

Hardy Lilies should be left where they are in the pond or water garden and will send up new shoots as the waters warm in the spring.

Winter: early, cold, and nationwide

pondplants — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 03:57:56 +0000

Tomorrow will be the first warm day here in Ohio since October. I get to write this post a second time because I somehow refreshed my page and erased thirty minutes worth of work. I provided some winter and Christmas images, as it’s just too cold and snowy to put up green images.

I will rewrite most of what I wanted to talk about today, including how this winter and the current rocky econmic conditions will affect the home and garden industry as a whole, or at least my predictions for 2009. You may or may not care about this as it is not a common topic to discuss how enviromental and economic conditions affect plants. However the economy will most certainly affect what you find IN garden centers each spring.

Last year I was asked how I thought the 2008 season would go as at the time we felt we were going into an economic downturn.

When you see economic reports in the news that the country is in a recession it is not necessarily true that everyone or every business is participating in a downturn. I am not forecasting that our sector of the water garden industry will suffer in 2009. In fact it is still quite possible the garden industry will do well in 2009. I see localized trouble for landscaping in some parts of the country but that is isolated. You can probably save on maintenance services should you be someone who hires someone to do your lawn or leaves. Take advantage of the situation. There will be more people willing to do yard work in 2009 due to both layoffs and a slightly tougher job market. A lawn business is something easy to start up that has immediate revenue and has a few costs or barriers to entry. Make sure who ever you hire is professional and that they know what they are doing. Most professional landscapers are still very bad water garden planners and installers. If I offended any landscapers feel free to e-mail me. Perhaps in the future I will put up a water gardening quiz. If your landscaper cannot answer the questions correctly than have them do everything but the water garden.

I believe 2009 will be similar to the spring and summer of 2002 when fewer people spent money on trips or traveled. Next year more people will stay at home and when this occurs they get creative. This is when we take time to redevelop our homes and yards. As we spend more time at home, we make our homes and gardens more inviting. With winter having begun so early (November 1st here in Ohio), and now much of the south and west has had a few rounds of cold and snow and ice. By the time April gets here we will be tired of a cold brown landscape and we will be investing in our yards.

Blizzard conditions

This does not mean we are all shelling out thousands of dollars but we will take out old overgrown shrubs we have been meaning to, dividing our hostas and replanting them. I think annuals will have huge growths in sales like petunias and inpatients (though there’s already bazillions of those). Our yards will be important. In the water garden industry I expect new water lily varieties to do well in sales like Leopardess (blue, mottles) water lily , Panama Pacific purple water lily, Miami Rose (reddish water lily), Pink Passion water Lily, and many more. Also new plants for sunny planters in most all of the country including papyrus which has been common in the southwest for some time and umbrella palms.

blizzard snow

Last week we had ice storms in the north east, this week in Chicago and Indiana. Snow twice in two weeks in Seattle which is uncommon, and more uncommon they now refuse to salt the roads in the city (for a good laugh look up the news stories about police officers responding on foot in Seattle because the city refuses to salt the streets because the salt may go into Puget sound, a body of salt water?). New Orleans and Beaumont TX had snow last week as did Las Vegas in the city. Florida has remained same so far but winter just arrived officially 5 days ago. Having lived here in Ohio for 8 or 9 years it wouldn’t surprise me if most of January and February are in the 50s but there is no sigh of that just yet. Tomorrow I will return to plants as I am anxious to begin discussing water lilies and what will be available this spring. We hope to be able to provide you with many new species and they are fantastic. I am having fun reading other blogs, mostly landscape like the whispering crane or searching the holiday making of people around the country.

Please don’t break the ice!

pondplants — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:31:34 +0000

That is, if your water garden contains fish.

Have you ever seen someone tap their finger on the glass of an aquarium? The fish jump, the sound waves scare the crap out of them. This is not healthy for fish, for some reason making loud noises affects fish negatively, causing them to become susceptible to bacterial infections and viruses. Were am I going with this? It is winter and if you have fish in your pond you probably know that a frozen over pond or water garden often has fish-kill, (fish that die during the winter). Some people think they see the fish under the ice which don’t appear to be moving are actually dead, frozen in the pond.

goldfish chilling out under a thin layer of ice

Unlikely– unless the pond is frozen to the bottom which may happen in North Dakota, Montana, or Upper Minnesota. Here in Ohio we only get the ice 3-6″ deep on the coldest winters. Though your fish can die with a quarter inch of ice, but they will not die from the cold. They die from both the lack of oxygen as they use up available oxygen in the water and no new oxygen can penetrate the ice. If your pond freezes over in Alabama one night and thaws the next day, it’s nothing to worry about– the fish are probably never going to notice, if you live in zone 6 and lower (maybe even zone 7) you should have a thermostatically controlled deicer in the pond over the winter. If it’s 40 degrees outside the heater won’t kick on so your electric bill isn’t going up. If it goes below 32 the heater turns on and off as necessary.

These pond heaters or deicer really started from farmers trough deicers, in fact if you want a good deal, head down to TSC tractor supply company and get one cheaper than in most garden centers. They are also less expensive on line at some stores ($38-48). Simply plug it in and keep a small amount of the pond unfrozen all winter.

Other alternatives? Keep a pump running that will provide a hole in the ice. Often a pump upwelling from the ledge will provide a strong current upwards. It will however cool the water to a much lower level at the bottom of the pond. Also make sure your leaves & debris are out of the pond before winter, you don’t want your pump getting clogged when its 10 degrees outside and you having to go unclog it. A bubbler or aerator that blows air under the water will keep a hole in the ice as the water is always moving where bubble are coming up. These are sometimes more expensive or need attached to an existing pump.

Deicer keeps a small hole in the ice letting fish breathe

Finally, the best trick, if your deicer dies or it freezes over in a pond where you don’t expect it to simply boil a tea kettle, or any pot of water and one or two times per day pour it on the ice slowly creating a small hole. All the bad gases will escape and oxygen will get in. NEVER break the ice, your fish will get stressed and die quickly, every year I hear someone tell me I don’t use a deicer I grab my spud bar and break the ice. I have seen fish jump when an index finger hits the glass of an aquarium I can really imagine a spud bar. I have seen movies where they threw dynamite in the water and fish instantly surfaced dead as a doorknob. I imagine that’s probably close tho the same stress for fish as a spud bar or shovel.

Last of all, I would like to disprove the myth of fish freezing in ice during the winter. Every year I hear this from people, “I can see them in the ice, they aren’t moving, they are frozen and come back to life when it thaws”. This is by no way true or scientists would be studying the first fish that did this. The truth is that as the water gets cold the fishes metabolism slows down to the point where the fish just basically sits in the pond with his gills moving. They are winter couch potatoes, go out every few days they will have changed position a bit and every thaw they will swim around a little. The metabolism is so slow you cannot ever feed fish Nov-April. When I was young ,on the first nice day of spring, I killed my favorite koi by feeding him. I gave him a big old lunch of pellets and he gobbled them up as fast as possible, he was about 16″ long so he was a great size. His stomach hadn’t digested anything in 6 months, he ate a lot. It was quick, I had no idea what I had done. When he floated to the surface a few moments later he looked so stretched out It was easy to see what had happened. He basically burst from the inside. It was tragic. That’s a little about fish in cold water.