Messages

1

Pond Chat / Re: Isaac

« on: September 03, 2012, 05:54:55 PM »

I got slammed here, about 13", in 24 hours- trashed the small inground pond, which I don't have the money to fix. The whole liner has to be replaced. Worked on it a bit today, but it's not going to last much longer. My whole patio was under 4" of water over the top of the pond, and no where for it to go, since the back yard was already a lake. Another hour of rain, and I would have had water in the house. A week later and the ground is still saturated. Here is a picture of my parking lot. I didn't move my car for 3 days-couldn't get past the lake at the end of the street. This pic, from my security camera is the day after it stopped.

2

Pond Chat / Re: Thought I'd share some morning beauty!

« on: August 15, 2012, 06:53:19 PM »

This lily continues to amaze me. Third night, and still so beautiful! It's about an inch bigger than on day 1. You can see a normal sized Trickett bud on the left. It makes that look like a pygmy lily! I am going to hate having to take this off....the other bud is going to be much smaller I think. It's about 3 days away, but no where near where this one was at the same point. We'll see....

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Pond Chat / Re: Thought I'd share some morning beauty!

« on: August 14, 2012, 04:42:43 PM »

Thanks everyone.  Matherfish, yes, it's a very regal lily! Waiting for it to open for the night.......

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Pond Chat / Thought I'd share some morning beauty!

« on: August 14, 2012, 05:29:43 AM »

The long awaited Woods White Knight bloom! It opened last night about 8, and the smell was amazing. I smelled it from my front door! The bud was 4.25 long, and it took forever to open! Like almost an hour! There is also another bud on the way up, so I am excited about that! This was definitely worth all of the maneuvering I had to do to have this lily! I couldn't decide which pic was best--the size one sucks, but I have about 20 beautiful shots of this! Morning sunrise really helped!

Enjoy!

The size;



The beauty;

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Pond Chat / Re: Paging Tropial Lily Experts....need some input here...

« on: August 01, 2012, 05:11:52 AM »

LOL, believe me Gary, I am looking for anything I can get rid of, to make more room. Only have the house itself left...can't go up....

Next move I make will be to the country where I will build as many ponds as I want....it will look like Kat's place, on steroids, LOL...nothing but rows and rows of huge timber ponds.... and maybe a few big mud bottom........(raised is way easier on my back though)

Just need to win the lottery. 

But, I got my wish for a bud from the WWK yesterday. Poking it's head out late yesterday, so about a week away I'd guess...so excited....

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Pond Chat / Re: Today's winner is

« on: July 30, 2012, 07:29:35 PM »

Very pretty Sue!

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Pond Chat / Re: Baby fish catcher?

« on: July 30, 2012, 07:28:33 PM »

What I do is make a Cichlid trap. Take a clear plastic soda bottle, like a single serving size, (NOT the 2 liter bottle for this) Cut the top 1/4 off of the bottle, leaving the spout on it. So that part would now look like a funnel. Take that, and invert it into the left over part of the bottle bottom.(spout pointing inside the bottle)Just push it in gently, it should be tight enough to hold. Now you will have an opening which is funneling the fish into the bottle. Put some food in it, so they go into the bottle. Once they get in it, they can't see the hole to get out, because they panic when they hit the rounded part. You can also put some small holes(that they cannot get out of) for oxygen if they will be in it longer than a couple of hours. Also, if the other fish can get through the soda bottle opening, you will have to make it smaller. I use packing tape to decrease the size. Do this around the spout, which will be inside the bottom part of the bottle....let me go see if I can find mine and show you a picture.....Ok, couldn't find my smaller one, but this will work for a visual. This is a medium size club soda bottle. (it has been frequently used. )

Make sure to leave at least 2" onto the rounded part of the bottle, otherwise it will not stay inside the bottom;


This is what it looks like together;


Put the food into it, and lower it slowly into the pond, letting the air out as you go- tilt it up. Make sure to let all of the air out, or it will float. I use pellet food, like shrimp. You can put several of them in the pond, but be sure to check it often. To get them out, just pull out the top part and dump them into something else. This also works well for tadpoles, and even larger ones for bigger fish. I recently had to make one that was over 20" long, to trap my moose of a pleco for his trip to the BIG community pond.  You can also anchor it to something if you want it higher in the water. I did this for some tadpoles recently.


Just work with it a bit, sometimes it takes them a while to trust it, to go in, but they will, eventually.  Good luck, it's better than scooping, but I have to do that sometimes too. Just use a clear plastic pitcher and sneak up on them and, sink the pitcher so fast they get caught up in the rush of water going into the pitcher.

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Pond Chat / Re: Paging Tropial Lily Experts....need some input here...

« on: July 30, 2012, 04:19:31 PM »

Hi Gary, I do that now to some degree, but worry that not feeding it will affect whether or not it blooms. I know it does on the Trickett to somewhat. If I slow down on the food for it, the buds also get smaller and farther between. It still has at least one bloom open per day, but usually only about 4 behind it when I'm not feeding it enough. Right now it has 6 buds on it, but that's because it's had a lot of food lately. I have managed to get it's pads down to a reasonable 9-10" though. But I might have to do that to the WWK to slow it down a bit...but I want a BLOOM. I hate making choices....thanks.

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Pond Chat / Re: Paging Tropial Lily Experts....need some input here...

« on: July 30, 2012, 11:24:00 AM »

Thanks Kat, I never knew that. What will become of the things in the middle? Will they be runners too? I'm not sure my pond is big enough for this thing....I ended up getting 2 of the 35 gallon patio ponds instead of adding on to my pond, but I might have to find a new home for this, in a big mud bottom pond somewhere...I am flat out of room. 

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Pond Chat / Paging Tropial Lily Experts....need some input here...

« on: July 30, 2012, 09:26:54 AM »

Ok, so this is the crown of the Woods White knight I got from work a month ago. It's in a smaller dishpan, and has put out a pad a day for the last week or so. Giant pads, about 13-14" almost totally round. Taking up more than half of my pond, and not sure it will be able to live here, BUT, the new growth on it is so different, that I thought I'd ask. The pointy things in the center are a first for me. (they are all the way around the crown-and much smaller than the pads coming up)They are flat on one side, rounded on the back, green at the top. None of them have opened to see a leaf or a pad. At the end of the pot, there appears to be a runner? or something? Also, note that the roots are starting to show under the pointy things in the crown.(was not potted this way) What is going on with this lily? It still does not have a bud, and when I moved one at work, it had a bud days later....it has been well fed too. (pix are loading slow for some reason)




And all the way to the right- looks like a runner sticking out-




Thanks in advance for some educating!

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Pond Chat / Re: Pond 6 years ago! New "after" pix today!

« on: July 23, 2012, 06:59:02 PM »

Looks awesome Jerry! Very lush.

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Pond Chat / Re: Oh Sean...

« on: July 11, 2012, 09:45:46 AM »

The feature has been turned off. You will not get any more black box notifications.

Cheers,
Sean

Thanks Sean! You're the BEST!

13

Pond Chat / Re: Any tips about parrot's feather?

« on: July 10, 2012, 06:21:06 PM »

I bought a 3' pot of parrot's feather a few weeks ago.  I have the pot on the shelf, about 10" underwater.

The fronds are getting pretty sickly.  Any tips?  Thanks in advance.

I gave up on them being planted. I like them better just stuck under rocks, poking out, and whatnot. But, I keep them trimmed way back. When they get leggy, I pinch them, taking off the root parts somewhat. They seem to get bigger and healthier when I do that. And you can keep them under control. Mine are fairly shallow though.

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Pond Chat / Re: Cleaned out a pond finally!

« on: July 10, 2012, 06:17:59 PM »

    That's seriously over crowded! I thought my pond was bad..    yeah, not so much! It looks like it was quite the job. Good luck finding homes for them. If I said yes, my pond would look like yours before you cleaned it out!

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Pond Chat / Re: Oh Sean...

« on: July 10, 2012, 06:11:52 PM »

thank you thank you for asking this! My husband just looked over at my computer when I signed in here and said "WHAT'S THAT?!?" I've been trying to get rid of it as well.

Uh oh - I just followed Sean's directions but I had already unchecked all of my boxes and I am still getting the scrolling black boxes each time I come into the forums?

Hi Lynne, it didn't work for me so far either. Maybe we need to delete our cookies, and sign in again? I had them unchecked, but re-saved it anyway.

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Pond Chat / Oh Sean...

« on: July 10, 2012, 08:46:02 AM »

I have a question for you. When I come to the board, there is a bunch of black boxes on the right, that say someone has replied to my post, but they are not my post. They go away in a few seconds, but I am wondering if there is a way for me to turn that off? I have looked everywhere in my settings, and everything is off, so not sure if there is an option to disable it?


Thanks!

17

Pond Chat / Re: 1.00 clearance finds.. help IDing these tagless specials :)

« on: July 07, 2012, 09:42:32 PM »

Hi Tink, Not sure on the banana variety, but the 2nd one is a bromeliad. A Neoregelia most likely. It likes dry feet, semi shade, not full sun. Just water in the center. There is probably a lot of info online about it. You can pot the bromeliad in cactus soil, or any other fast draining mix. They really don't even care if they are in soil. You could just mount it on something, but be sure to keep water in the 'cup'. (center)

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Pond Chat / Re: Tired and Stinky

« on: July 07, 2012, 12:37:28 PM »

LOL Sue! They all look great though, so it's all worth it.

19

Pond Chat / Re: Locals cannot figure out how to pot water lilies

« on: July 07, 2012, 12:36:48 PM »

By the way Kat, I meant to comment on the whole dirt thing; I HATE looking for dirt.  it's very scarce here for me too. I am considering sand when I divide. I just have this thing stuck in my head that yard dirt is better, but I am running out of options. So I get ya.

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Pond Chat / Re: Locals cannot figure out how to pot water lilies

« on: July 07, 2012, 11:16:27 AM »

It is getting harder & harder for me to locate piles of extra dirt at construction sites as they are further away from my location.  Therefore I don't have a lot of extra, just enough to keep my plants potted.  I offer my divisions bare root on Craigslist.  I get some people that buy but I've finally figured out that most of the locals don't want to learn how to pot their lilies.  They will pay $25 plus tax for a prepotted lily compared to my bare root prices.  With information just a few clicks away (Google, etc), it surprises the heck out of me that so many people aren't willing to do the research. 

Wait til those prepotted lilies (ususally in pots not big enough to make it an entire season without overgrowing the pot) need dividing & repotting.  What will they do then? 

And they won't buy tropicals.  Go figure.  Lots tropicals do fine with the proper care here.  I've had plenty of mine survive not even being divided for a couple of years without fertilizer, too.

Kat, I have to tell you, before I knew anything about lilies, even the limited amount that I know now- I never wanted tropicals. Not sure why. Just had a mental block about it... Now, I wish that's all I had. Especially since the only hardies blooming for me this year are the puny Dallas, and the weed Odorata. No lemon mist still, even though I put holes in the pots, and fed the crap out of them. I even have a pygmy lily, 2nd year, that has NEVER bloomed. Crown, after crown, after crown....how to stop that?!? Just don't get it. But the tropical I have does GREAT. Now I have the night blooming tropical, and I swear, if the two tropicals I have continually do well for me this year, next year, that's all I am going to have. I love the lemon mist, but I am OVER IT. 6 blooms on 5 plants since May. Unacceptable. I just don't think it likes it here. June Allison is on my list, if you will have it next year.

21

Pond Chat / Re: I love taro, post your pics

« on: July 05, 2012, 10:27:56 AM »

are yall in zones where you get to leave them in the ground for winter? 

I am determined to have taros SO everyone just pack me up some of yours and send them asap by overnight mail

any help appreciated on why I just cant seem to grow them

tink

Hi Tink,

They need to have their feet wet, ankles dry. Or so I have found. Maybe a bit less if your climate is cooler....I have mine in full sun, until about 3:00 in the afternoon, then full shade. This is for the black magic, but the tea cup is in full sun until about 5:00. I gave the black magic some- not much- osmocote, and put small pebbles on top in the pot, which only has one 1/4" hole for the water to drain out of. Before I drilled it, the water was stagnating, and the plant was not doing good. So very moist soil, watered every other day has been working for me.

I think you can grow them...you do so well with everything else. It has taken me a long time to finally get mine happy, but you have to move it around until you see where it is happy. This black magic has been in every spot on my patio, and it has done the best where it currently is. I'll send you some runner if you want?(waiting for it to leaf out right now...) Let me know. But you would have to bring it in for the winter, I would think. I've just covered it when we had a few cold nights, but it didn't seem to bother it.

22

Pond Chat / Re: Where Do You Buy Your Pond Tabs?

« on: July 04, 2012, 07:44:08 AM »

I stopped using the tabs several years ago--they also seem to fall apart in the bottle on me...now I use Osmocote or the equivalent of that...any of the time released ones that look like little tank bb's...I take two fingers and put a hole in the soil and add 1 tbs. of osmocote then cover the hole back up...I use 1 tbs. per gallon of soil....usually only have to use it once a season but, at the most twice...
Lawanna

They started to fall apart on me as well. I use the PondCare Plant food tablets, and what I have found is, that if I take the bag outside, it gets humidity/moisture in the bag, I close it up, and the next time I go to use them, they disintegrate in my hand with little pressure. I don't take the bag outside anymore, and it's no longer an issue. Humidity takes a toll on them, which never occurred to me before this year. (Probably because they were designed to dissolve in water )But, I put the soft ones on a plate for about 4 days, and they dried out, and took a lot more pressure to make them fall apart. Almost as good as new. I also use a single layer of paper towel (peel the layers apart) and wrap the tabs in that before I shove them in the dirt. It keeps them in place and no residue escapes. I cut the paper towel in small squares, enough to roll the tab a couple of times, then fold over the top. about a 3"X3" square. The goodness still gets to the plant- or so I think?- haven't seen anything to suggest that they are not absorbing the food.

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Pond Chat / Re: hot temps and ponds

« on: July 02, 2012, 03:15:14 PM »

97 here at 1pm, today trying to shade the pond with pieces of fence etc. i also have 4 sm tub ponds  and trying to shade them. this is rather new for us. i mean we always get a few days over 90 but never anything like thisfor days and days.  no more galvanized tubs for me, will go a bit bigger, easier to keep cool. am not enjoying this although might be better than blizzards.

I know, it's really hot here too. The last few days have been way up there. I cleaned  my neighbors planter pond last night- it's a 36" resin pot- and it was 94 degrees in there! She, and I, have gambusia in those pots! I was like OMG! So I brought the water down to about 82, but it took almost 2 hours. Funny thing though, they didn't seem like they were stressed, but they should have been! Mine are somewhat shaded in the afternoon, so they stay in the low/mid 80's, which seems to be fine for them, but I also have a filter, and aeration in them. She does not, but she needs to do it, soon.

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Pond Chat / Well, here's something you don't see every day....

« on: July 02, 2012, 04:42:38 AM »

Two days in a row for me though. Yesterday, I thought it was just a fluke, but he's back in the pond this morning. Maybe he's going after the fish food, or maybe he has figured out that a ton of gnats fall into the pond. I don't know, but he is not shy. Sat there the whole time I took about 10 pix of him....maybe he thinks he's a frog....

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Pond Chat / Re: hot temps and ponds

« on: July 01, 2012, 07:43:32 PM »

I will echo what Sue said; don't lower the temp too fast, or you will shock them, and they will die. Bring it down no more than 2 degrees in a 15 minutes. I also recommend shading it if you can - after 12:00 or 1:00 in the afternoon. Not sure what kind of fish you have though. Mosquito fish and some tropicals can take up to 90 degrees, but not for very long.....

26

Pond Chat / Re: Un-Named White Nightbloomer Blooms today

« on: June 28, 2012, 08:49:38 PM »

That looks like a Woods White Knight. (By Jack Wood) I dug a few up in our retention pond at work, potted up a BIG one 2 weeks ago, and this week, it rewarded me with 2 HUGE blooms. ( I gave it 5 tabs...)If the pads are very scalloped, and ruffled, somewhat thick, with purplish thick stems, then that would be my guess. Funny too, one just landed in my personal pond last night....the lily fairy.    It stays open here until noon, opens later-after I go home at 5. Perfect for my home pond, since I never see the day blooms anymore. I can't wait for my first bloom at home!! Anywho, here are a couple of pix from the work pond, and one which you can see the pads better-

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Pond Chat / Re: OM#!*G- Does anyone know what these are......

« on: June 25, 2012, 05:46:30 PM »

Baby snails

Well, then they go to snail heaven tomorrow, since this pond has never had snails before. Looks like I need some more aggressive loaches for this pond. They probably hitched a ride in on some recycled gravel I used recently.  I've never seen them at this stage before. I usually eliminate them before this.

Thanks!

28

Pond Chat / Re: OM#!*G- Does anyone know what these are......

« on: June 25, 2012, 04:41:00 PM »

Not sure but I know that Dragonflies and Damselflies lay their eggs on the underside edges of pads like that.
One possibility but again, I am not certain.

Cheers,
Sean

Hi Sean, I have a screened enclosure, they can't get in here...I've never seen anything like it.

29

Pond Chat / OM#!*G- Does anyone know what these are......

« on: June 25, 2012, 03:10:13 PM »

They are all over the backs of my pads! Is it some kind of bug? Snail? Frog egg? They are very crusty, have to really pull to get them off, and they just got there over the last week. More importantly, whatever it is, how do I get rid of them, without having to crush them like snails?











Jeez, it's always something!!

Thanks in advance!

30

Pond Chat / Re: More Lily pics

« on: June 17, 2012, 07:03:09 PM »

Lynne, I have all my hardies planted in dollar store dishpans, both round & oblong.  I'll put a layer of fertilizer (Osmocote green cap 14-14-14) mixed half/half with Colorburst fertilizer (I get both at Home Depot) on the bottom, then dirt, the plant, & gravel on top.  I am probably putting too much fertilizer in the pan     If you have a particularly stubborn lily, plant in a pot with a couple of holes for gas exchange.  Another fertilizer I'll use is the Jobe's Tomato spikes when I don't want to mess with pulling the plant out of the pot.

Hmm, you have me thinking about that whole gas exchange....maybe that's why they all got buds when I divided them. They liked the air. I can make holes in them. Small scissors....and I might try a couple more tabs, or some pantyhose buried with some osmocote. Only thing about the osmocote is, this year, for some reason, it seems to be kicking the cyanobacteria in to full blown blooms. Never had it before this year, and only in the containers with it, in a plant or the Tea Cup. But I have been unable to get rid of it, even with more oxygen and water changes. It smothers the small pygmy lily pads, and the parrots feather FAST.  But I will give that a try.

Meanwhile, the Trickett has finally started in again. This pic was from yesterday, or the day before, and as you can see the pads are HUGE. They are well over 13". There are NINE buds on it, more than it's ever had. This one got 6 tabs over the span of a week, then it went crazy.  See the lemon mist, not one bloom. Sad.

Anyway, I am so glad it recovered from repotting it. And it seems as strong as ever. In fact, the most buds it ever had before at one time were 7, so it's actually doing better than before.




Here it is before-or right when I repotted it;



And the other day;