Messages

1

Pond Chat / Re: What color is this lily ?

« on: June 27, 2010, 09:07:14 PM »

It looks like a gray or blue-gray color to me.

2

Pond Chat / Re: more lotus pics

« on: June 23, 2010, 04:48:26 PM »

Thanks for the offer Marie but it may not be possible because of customs restrictions.

3

Pond Chat / Re: more lotus pics

« on: June 23, 2010, 12:26:13 PM »

Those pinks are both beautiful.

I normally prefer the single lotus but that pink double is amazing.

4

Pond Chat / Re: Compact water lilies for container ponds?

« on: June 22, 2010, 01:03:51 PM »

I can't help you with hardy lilies but Dauben, Islamorada and St Louis Gold both flower very well in restricted spaces.
You may not have as much luck with St Louis Gold if you're in a cold climate.

5

Pond Chat / Re: A few lilies: Blue Aster, Bulls Eye, William McLane and others

« on: June 22, 2010, 12:54:13 PM »

@matherfish, the William McLane lily in my photo was the same purplish color as the photo indicates.

It is sometimes more blue than purple as this next photo indicates.

My leaves are not as dark as the ones in Mike's photo but it might be a result of the partial shade that my lily receives.

The Bulls Eye is redder than Miami Rose as seen in the photo with Bulls Eye in the upper right corner, Miami Rose on the left and Evelyn Randig at the bottom.

6

Pond Chat / Re: A few lilies: Blue Aster, Bulls Eye, William McLane and others

« on: June 17, 2010, 07:14:15 PM »

Hi Marie.
There is a difference in person but it didn't show up well in the photos.

7

Pond Chat / Re: A few lilies: Blue Aster, Bulls Eye, William McLane and others

« on: June 17, 2010, 01:42:16 PM »

Red Scarf (lotus), Star of Siam and William McLane

8

Pond Chat / A few lilies: Blue Aster, Bulls Eye, William McLane and others

« on: June 17, 2010, 01:41:01 PM »

Here's a few lilies that were open today starting with Blue Aster, Bulls Eye and Miami Rose.

9

Pond Chat / Re: first lotus blooms 6-12-2010 zone 6

« on: June 16, 2010, 05:20:32 AM »

Those are both beautiful Vickie.

10

Pond Chat / Re: Red Scarf Lotus

« on: June 16, 2010, 05:04:55 AM »

Thanks for posting your pics. My Red Scarf lotus has only been putting out leaves for the last 2 yrs. 

Wow.
Maybe I just got lucky because out of three tubers I've got one lotus with an open flower and one with buds and the other one still has just leaves.

I wonder if there are temperature differences between you and I that are having an effect or if it's related to the type of soil or some other factor.

11

Pond Chat / Re: The king

« on: June 16, 2010, 04:30:27 AM »

King of Siam is a great lily and even though the petals tend to burn in the summer it's still one of my favorites.

12

Pond Chat / Re: Red Scarf Lotus

« on: June 16, 2010, 04:15:04 AM »

Thanks for the comments.
The flower is open fully today and now measures almost 8 inches which isn't bad for a smaller variety.

13

Pond Chat / Red Scarf Lotus

« on: June 15, 2010, 08:05:00 PM »

I had read that lotus often don’t flower during the first year but a member on the Victoria Adventure list mentioned that the smaller varieties sometimes do flower during their first year so I decided to try a small variety.

I found one called Red Scarf that is supposed to flower well so I purchased three bare tubers of those, shipped dry in plastic bags with a bit of peat moss, and planted them in the last week of April. They were placed in a grow bag about 15 inches wide and filled with about 6 inches of soil, with no fertilizer, and covered with washed beach sand.

I saw my first bud a week ago and just had my first flower open today.

Less than two months from bare tuber to open flower is comparable to many tropical waterlilies.

The flower was probably 5 or 6 inches and the largest leaf is about 10.5 inches.

It doesn’t look like some of the photos on commercial sites which seem to have edited the photo to make it appear redder than it is in real life.

It was purchased from a reputable company, Florida Aquatic Nurseries, so I think I have a correctly named lotus.

14

Pond Chat / Re: Fernlady

« on: June 15, 2010, 08:00:58 PM »

You can add me to the Fernlady fan club.

She's a very nice and generous person.

15

Pond Chat / Re: some of my water lilies

« on: June 15, 2010, 07:54:04 PM »

That red lily is beautiful Vickie.

16

Pond Chat / Re: Southern Charm

« on: June 15, 2010, 07:52:49 PM »

I'm also growing that lily for the first time this year.
It's a nice lily that flowers well but it opens a bit late in the morning for me.

The colors are a little off on this photo as it's very difficult to capture the greenish tones.



I'll be growing Anne Emmett later this year so it will interesting to compare the two lilies.

17

Aquatic and Terrestrial Plant Exchange / Re: N. minuta seeds

« on: March 09, 2010, 04:48:49 AM »

I think I have Candida. I purchased it as virginalis but I'm pretty sure it's Candida  Very small and white and looks like a species plant to me.  I should self it to be sure but I can't figure out what else it could be.
 Does anybody have a plant that they know for sure is Candida ? I would like to get one to compare with and breed to the one that I have for diversity.

I think Andrew Davis has a candida so you can ask him for pictures.

Does your candida have a red center?

If it doesn't then it may not be candida.

18

Pond Chat / Re: What now?!?!?! Am I found?!!

« on: January 23, 2010, 07:58:53 AM »

I have had them around my ponds every day for years.

They have only caught the mosquito fish, small tropical fish and some goldfish as well as some lizards and they've attempted to catch small birds like Grassquits but I don't know if they've been successful at that.

I've never seen them catch a koi.

19

Pond Chat / Re: Pond fleas?

« on: December 15, 2009, 04:42:19 PM »

Maybe they are daphnia as others have suggested.

They could also be seed shrimps:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracod

If they are seed shrimps then you might see empty shells at the bottom of your pond, the tops of your pots, or in your filter.

They could also be hyallela although they aren't as active as seeds shrimps or daphnia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyalella

20

Pond Chat / Re: Craig, and others- tropical lilies question

« on: October 17, 2009, 06:49:38 PM »

I'll jump in until Craig gets here.

I live in zone 10 and many of my lilies keep going all year.

Some exceptions include the Australian lilies that tend to go dormant around December or January or sometimes earlier if they're not getting enough light or nutrients. Under ideal conditions they may not go dormant at all but I guess I don't have those conditions in my pond.

If you leave them in the pond after they go dormant the Australians will come back on their own but it won't be until mid summer in my experience. Other lilies come back a bit sooner.

I've found that if I pull them up and clean them off and put them in heated water I can get them to sprout around February or March.

Using supplemental lighting shining on the pond will get them growing after they've sprouted even if the weather is still a bit cool.

I get a much bigger head start on the season that way.

Your mileage may vary.

21

Pond Chat / Re: Tobago Red

« on: September 10, 2009, 04:36:04 PM »

Thanks for the picture of the immutabilis Craig.

The color is much deeper but it looks like it could have been the seed parent of my lily.
We just need to find out if it was also the pollen parent.

I think Ken Landon said that some Anecphya lilies will produce seedlings that are white or pale blue even if the parent plant was another color.

I can't find that information anywhere right now but perhaps Timgod could ask him whether that was true in his experience.

22

Pond Chat / Re: N. violacea

« on: September 09, 2009, 03:46:22 PM »

Hi Vickie, Fernlady told me about the forum a couple of months ago but I've only just become active in the last few days.

I guess you and Craig have some similarities in regards to the lack of scent.

23

Pond Chat / Re: Craig thoughts on this one please?

« on: September 09, 2009, 03:42:11 PM »

Hi Vickie, I'm trying to pollinate the Pink-Violet immutabilis so I can send some seeds to you and Fernlady before winter.
The only problem is the new flowers are opening when the previous flowers are on their fifth or sixth day and I'm not sure how viable the pollen is at that late stage.

I'll let you both know when I get some seed.

24

Pond Chat / Re: Craig thoughts on this one please?

« on: September 08, 2009, 02:37:06 PM »

I know that immutabilis normally have the white inner petals and darker outer petals but the form of the flower, with the petals being wider than the gigantea, led me to believe that it was not a gigantea. I assumed the lily was immutabilis as it was stated when I received the seeds.

It's possible that it is something else entirely.

My Pink-Violet immutabilis fits the color pattern much better than the light blue one.

25

Pond Chat / Re: Yasuhiro

« on: September 08, 2009, 02:28:39 PM »

That sounds promising.
Perhaps I'll make a few more attempts.

I wont hold my hopes too high since numerous flowers of the hybrids have been exposed to bees, next to uncovered gigantea and immutabilis flowers, and I've never seen even a small seed pod on them.

26

Pond Chat / Re: Yasuhiro

« on: September 08, 2009, 12:58:45 PM »

I was waiting to check the pollen before I replied....and it is fertile.  Oddly so, actually.  There are two distinct sizes that both germinate and a few in the mix seem to produce to pollen tubes, though one is abbreviated.  Next bloom, I'll try to check if it is seed fertile as well.

Hi Craig, my gigiantea x colorata and immutabilis x colorata hybrids both have significant amounts of non-deformed pollen that germinates quite readily but I haven't has any success in hybridizing them yet. I actually gave up after my first few attempts, using highly fertile lilies as parents, all failed.

I've used the pollen of both Brachyceras and Anecphya species lilies to pollinate the flowers but no seeds formed.
Self pollination also failed.

Perhaps you'll have better luck than I've had in my attempts.

27

Pond Chat / Re: Craig thoughts on this one please?

« on: September 08, 2009, 12:17:20 PM »

Vickie, that looks like the immutabilis I sent to you but with more blue in the center.
Is that just the photo or is it like that in real life?

I grew my lily from seeds obtained from Kit's immutabilis.

Here's a photo I just took of my immutabilis.
It's a bit paler than usual right now.

It's normally darker than Albert De Lestang on the edges and it has much broader petals.

28

Pond Chat / Re: N. violacea

« on: September 08, 2009, 12:12:43 PM »

That's very pretty Vickie.

Does it have a stronger scent than the gigantea flower?

- Quentin