This entry will be a crucial one for the longevity of the victorias summer growth cycle. The choices that are made at this point can either create a continuous growth spurt for the full length of the summer season or create a situation where you will have to tranplant one last time or just live with the size of plant that your particular little potted ecosystem will allow for.
The size of your growing space is always a consideration. It is said to grow victorias one usually should have at least a 10′x10′ growing dimension, yet if you do not give them a very large pot or lots of fertilizer you can get away with a smaller area. I use 23″wx10″deep pots to grow the babies into adult stage here at the nursery. Iv’e always thought that if I were to have more trough width, depth and if I were to use a larger pot I could create even larger plants than the 5′ dia. leafed plants that I seem to have topped out at. Using a 16″wx7″deep pot can easily get a plant to attain at least 3′ diameter leaves, which really is quite large compared to your average water lily, plus it can also bloom throughout the warm growing season just like a larger plant would. This pot size is much more manageable than the big ones that I use, but if you have the space,depth and a good sunny warm place the thrill of growing the huge leaves and flowers is sensational.
The pictures that coincide with this text illustrate my transplanting my wintered over Longwood Hybrid lily that has been shown in previous entries. The enormous size that it did attain even in a 10″wx7″d pot was incredible.Then I move on to pot up a more traditional 5.5″ pot grown lily into the larger pots as well.
The soil I use is pure sandy loam that I get from our soil supplier, very inert, the lilies do not want to have a lot of organic matter in their pots as is also true for most waterlilies.I fill my pots up a 3rd of the way and then mix in Landon granular slow release fertilizer that I get from the Plantabbs sp? aquatic fertilzer company. The idea is to mix the fertilizer in the bottom third and as the lily grows a bit more it will reach down into the soil and begin to take up the nutrients without being burned from too much too soon.I use 20-25 oz. per tub,but for the species, Amazonica and Cruziana I use the lower amount for sure as they seem to resent the fertilizer blast a bit more. The good part about this system is that you can get about 60 days of growth out of this one feeding thus making life a lot easier considering these jewels of the Amazon do require lots of food to flourish. Now, my growing environment is very controlled, the night time temp. doesn’t drop below 75-78 degrees so if you are growing outside the fert may last a bit longer and you could probably get away with using less. Now here is the change from my past growing practices, after hearing about the 6′ leaves that they are getting out at the Sarah Duke Gardens from my friend Tamara Kilbane I decided to try their method of also putting in pondtabbs in the lower third of the soil strata along with the granular. So far so good, the tranplanted LW is getting huge without any signs of being burned.I put 10 in the species pots and 15 into the hybrids. At this point I have pretty much planted up all the big pots for the summer (12-13) and they all seem to be doing fine.
As is illustrated in the photos after putting in the fert and packing down the soil you simply add more soil to the top pack that down water them and then ease them into the water. If you do live in an area that has a very warm growing environment it may be best to place your plants a bit lower in the pots as they have a tendancy to grow upwards and out of the soil as they really get going, this will allow you to add more soil later on. One of my biggest drawbacks here is that I do not have the depth to keep the crowns from growing up and out of the water before the season passes. This is mainly true of the Primary Hybrids, LW and Adventure. There is a system called Chop n Drop that is very effective that can be found on the Victoria-Adventure website. If the crowns do come up and out they can dessicate and eventually lead to the plants ultimate demise. This has happened here many times over the years so I have been performing the Chop N Drop method more, it’s too painful to watch the slow death.
A couple more ideas, always put holes in your pots as this will add oxygen for the roots and they may also get some extra nutrients from the water. If the Landon mix is too hard to find using the pond tabs and Cocktail fertilizer method found on the once again, victoria-adventure website, is an outstanding alternative.The reason I like the Landon mix so much is because I don’t always have the time to make the weekly fert. applications,however it does become the norm later on in the summer as the initial doses do get used up.
Next Time, Flower Photos as the wintered over LW is already doing her thing, See ya!
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Here’s the latest update on the Victoria progress. The occasional part of my doing entries to my Blog came true, who’d a thunk? Springtime in the nursery industry, that my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
The babies are coming on like gangbusters. The latest pictures illustrate the two next sizes up from the initial 3oz. cups. I moved those into 9oz. and then on into 5.5 inch azalea pots. Those are the last stages that they move into before they finally go into the 23inch wide by 10 inch deep pots for the summer. As they were moved along to the successive pot sizes the peat moss was still placed in the bottom of each pot and they were given a small dose of the liquid cocktail mix that was developed by Kit and Ben Knotts from the Victoria website. It is a combination Seamate or Roots, Fish emulsion, Iron and Jr. Pondtaabs, plus water. There is a mix for the younger plants and then one for the adults. These are applied on a weekly basis throughout the growing season. I do have one reprieve period of six weeks after they go into the big pots, because I use a slow release fert. that lasts about that long. It is the Landon mix from the folks at Plantaabs. But after they go through that the honeymoon is over. I’ll talk more about that later on.
So far I believe that I have a good supply of all of the varieties that I will need for the breeding season. Lots of LW, Adventure, Amazonica and Cruziana. I hope to have three of each this year to display at the nursery and be fully pumped up for the Waterlily festival come the end of July. The bloom night that we have each year on the Thursday of the 10 day event is always a lot of fun, especially if the night blooming Queen’s show themselves. So far we are three for three, last year we had 5-7 second night blooms, as they seem to bloom earlier than the first night bloom does at that point in the summer.
It looks like I may begin to plant up some of the lilies into the biggest pots this coming week. The carryover LW that made it through the winter will be blooming very soon. It has three 24 inch dia. leaves now and will be huge in a month or so. 5′ leaves pending, I may try to super fertilize one this year to see if I can get to the ever elusive 6′ level, it may be that my lack of water depth, trough dimension width and pot size will never allow that to happen so we shall see.
Due to the recent heat wave we experienced here I moved most of the young adults into the large growing trough to avoid having a smoldering meltdown like I had over one weekend a couple of years ago. 110 degree water is not a good thing. Tough learning experience to say the least. If I’m there, I will run cool water through the small growing trough to keep the high temps in check a little better. Once they are in the secondary stages of development 80-90 degrees in plenty warm.
I’m looking forward to potting up some of the big pots this week even if my back isn’t. Talk at you next time. One last thing please go to the watergardenersinternational.org journal website to see the very first Hardy Blue Waterlily ever, it’s a land mark development in the industry. We hope to see them here someday. Plus there is one other article about Blue Lilies that may interest you as well.
See ya
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Tagged: koi, plants, ponds, water gardening, water gardens
As I move into my 6th year of growing Victoria Lilies it does seem to be getting easier, but as is the case in most of the past years there will always be unexpected hurdles to overcome. Being that this is something somewhat unusual for most nurseries to be growing whether it be an aquatic nursery or any other kind for that matter I have decided to trace the progress of the whole process over this years growing season. I did learn most of what I know from my friend Kit Knotts out in Cocoa beach, Florida who has been running the Victoria website for many many years now. That website is an awesome source of information for growing Victorias. Check my links.
I normally start the season in late February and it can run all the way into late November or early December, when the last of the summers survivors are finally composted. The seed starting process goes something like this, first the seeds must have their little windows opened up to move into the future. This nicking process removes a little covering on one particular spot on each seed that is called the operculum. The seeds are always stored in water so this is something that must be done moving from one water source to the next. Ziploc bags work great. I use an exacto knife to remove the window. It takes some practice and good eyesight to avoid nicking the seed where you don’t necessarily want to, if you are sloppy or cut into the seed on its outer coat where there is no window bad things are going to happen, as in they probably will not sprout. Since I have been producing my own seed for a number of years now I have the luxury of having enough seeds so as I can attempt to start lots of seeds even when the germination rate is often times very low.
At this point I have started many seed lots of 50 or so seeds of the 2 species (Amazonica and Cruziana) and the two Primary Hybrids ( Longwood Hybrid and Adventure) , I’ve decided to try and concentrate more on these varieties this year rather than growing all eight, simply because the aforementioned types are the ones that I use for the breeding process and with a limited amount of space it just will make it easier. I usually have 13 or so full sized adults throughout the summer growing season. I have yet to find a bigger display on the West coast and if I hear about one I’d love to see it.
After having the nicked seeds in their desired 85-92 degree aquarium water bath they have begun to sprout quite well up to this point. I must have upwards of 50 or so transplants in their small 5oz. cups now and will begin to nurture them along further with fertilizer injections into their root mass areas after they have their first floating leaves reaching the waters surface. That is the turning point moment as to when they become survivors or not. Once 2-3 of these leaves make it I’m fairly confident that they will be keepers. I use sandy loam as my base soil and I also put a teaspoon or so of peatmoss in the bottom of each cup. There are also holes in all of the pots right on up into adulthood. To backtrack a bit it is important to wait until the seedlings have two hastate leaves growing and some roots showing before attempting to move them into the soil growing environment. This has worked well for me even though I’ve heard of pushing them along more quickly can also work.
Now that they are in their first stage cups I will wait until I see an abundance of roots before I move them into 9oz. cups. These different stages usually take about a month in between one another. After the 9oz. cups they go int 5.5 inch Azalea pots and then into 23 inch tubs for the summer. As the plants move along through the various different stages of growth the temperatures can begin to level out at between 70-80 degrees. I will be continually updating the progress of my little babies right on up to their flowering, which often times begins in early to late June. I did winter one over though and they can begin to flower much sooner, I’ll be keeping a close watch on that survivor. For more in depth growing information I will always refer all inquires to the Victoria website as that is so thorough.
Talk at ya next time, Dave
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Welcome to My Blog,
This will be some what of an occasional event, with additions coming as the season progresses and as some highlights come to my attention that I will put forth here. The nursery going into it’s 15th year since it’s inception is a stable yet ever evolving entity, as nurseries should be. This year one major change has come about in that we will no longer be offering our Aquapot line anymore. This product has been replaced by our 3.5 inch program. As our sales have increased in this area and not so much with the Aquapots it was a natural transition to make. The 3.5’s are bigger more well established plants and can be sold as they are or can be moved up into bigger pot sizes and will finish quickly for greater profit. For all of you loyal Aquapot customers that we have had over all of these years I wish to simply say thanks, and I hope that you will embrace this change with open arms, thanks again!
At this point in our greenhouses (all 12 of them) the plants are coming along quite briskly, we have recently gotten some more much needed sunny days and that has really helped to speed up the overall general growth of all of our little babies. Our early shipments have been headed to the warmer climes of the western US as to make the transition for the plants a little easier, but as the temps. begin to pick up elsewhere the free for all will be on. I’m finally seeing some more space opening up that I thought would never come, my personally favorite part of the shipping season. Outside here, we are still having night time lows in the low 30’s so it’s still a bit to early to be putting out our tender stock. I hope to get some pix up to show some growth advancements of the plants as they continue to mature.
Our nursery is made up of three different entities, Retail,Wholesale and Construction. Over time I want to post some pix and info. about some of our different branches to better illustrate a little bit more of what we are really all about.
I do also grow the Mighty Victoria Lillies here at the nursery and I will try to keep some updates coming on that end as well. I may begin to start the seeds this coming Monday, Feb. 18th. The first phase is to nick the seeds and then float them in Ziplock bags in an aquarium at between 85 and 92 degrees. By mid to late July I hope to have some 5 foot diameter leaves that will be on display here at the nursery, as I have been unable to find a larger display on the west coast we still consider ours to be the one to see. It usually ends up being 13 full sized adults by mid-summer.
Some closing thoughts, I hope our newly improved website has been more enjoyable to all as our webmaster Denise Carder has been making improvements and additions this winter to make it as “they say” more user friendly, cheers to Denise!
I also want to make anyone who is not yet aware of the www.watergardenersinternational.org website more aware of it’s existence. There is an online Journal that comes out on a quarterly basis that is a compilation of assorted articles from water gardeners from around the world. I am presently the NW-USA rep. and have contributed to the site for the past 2 years. It’s free to join and it’s great info. We will eventually get my articles linked to our website, and they are all available in the archives of the WGI site. Please check it out.
I guess that’s about it for now, Dave
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