Nymphaea Fidelity » Planting a Tropical Water Lily

Utopia Aquatic uses small pots to control the size of the plants. You should plant in a large pot such as a 2 gallon. We also use pots with holes because the roots will eventually find their way out the bottom and feed on the mulm on the bottom. There is no debate–if you have two identical tropical water lilies and pot one in a sealed container and the other in one with holes–the one with holes will grow more vigorously! In this tutorial, we temporarily seal the holes with index cards, otherwise the sand would spill out. We also use and recommend Osmocote. We also recommend AgSafe Aquatic-Tabs or Pondtabbs Plus.You may use other kinds of aquatic plant fertilizers if these are not accessible.

Part 1: Gather the supplies. In this photo we have a pot, a tropical water lily, sand, fertilizer, and index cards.

Part 2: Use the index cards to seal the bottom of the pot.

Part 3: Next place some sand in the bottom–about 1/3 of the pot.

Part 4: Add some fertilizer. We use Osmocote.

Part 5: Top of the fertilizer will a small amount of sand.

Part 6: Set the plant in the pot and spread the roots around.

Part 7: Fill the pot nearly full with sand. Then press the sand to firm it.

Part 8: Here we have a tropical water lily (N. ‘Charlie’s Pride) ready to be placed in a pond/ water garden.