Waterlily is an alluring plant when in full bloom; bright petals emerging out of the murky depth, inviting you to take a closer look.
One might think planting water lily is as simple as sticking a plant into muddy water and leave it alone. Well..., unless that muddy water happens to be of correct depth, with correct amount of nutrient, exposed to full sun, and with water organisms to control water vectors (spelled m. l-a-r-v-a-e).
Water lily requires full sun.
Under full shade it will just wither back and dies.
Partial sun is ok, but after a while you will notice the plant growth biasing towards the sun. It will not wither and dies nor will it profusely grow and bloom. In the monsoon season when Mr. Sun can hide behind clouds for days and the frogs come out to sing, the less established plants can start withering.
Water lily needs regular fertiliser feeding in the right amount. Too much fertiliser and the water will turn murky green with algae growth. Too little fertiliser will result in stagnant growth or even some leaves to die back.
With sun and fertiliser requirements taken care of, you will need aquatic organisms to control mosquito larvaes. In a small confined setting, fish is not a good choice. However, prawns/shrimps will thrive happily. An advantage of prawns is they eat algae. They eat almost anything in the water that does not eat them.
Occasionally, prawns will even share the space with tadpoles.
Water lily is propagated via plantlets produced at the stem end of the leaves.
"Pamela" water lily - this is a dwarf species with purplish blooms.
"????" water lily - this is a mid-dwarf species with red blooms.
Rescued from certain doom after placing it under full shade out of ignorance. I manage to coax two new plantlets out of the withering leaves.
A frog decided to call home.
(After the putty kat decided to quit hunting frogs, the frogs are back with vengence. Breed and prosper, Kermit.)
11-Dec-2011
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