anyone try any different overwintering routes this year?

[Rad Michelle]

i was just wondering if anyone tried anything different this year as far as overwintering their lilies, i decided to build a wood frame pond in a shed on the property with some grow lights. some of them went dormant before i could finish it, but they are springing back, and i even still have some blooming 

[miguynmkoi]

Happy New Year Michelle!  This year I just got lazy and left my lilies right where they are in the pond.  Some have good pads floating and some even have new growth but then there are the one I wonder if they will come back.

[OldMarine]

I miss the weather in California.

All of my lilies are all cut back and dormant. I have a insulated room in the back of the garage that used to be a heated tropical fish room where we did a lot of breeding of our own years ago. I thought about putting a wading pool for the lilies and bog plants in there for the winter, but it just didn't happen this year.

Happy ponding,
Rich   

[PondmaninAL]

Seeing that I don't have anywhere to put the trops for Winter, I just left them in a stock tank at the back of my parents house. The fish are in another stock tank with a thin sheet of ice on it but there is a hole where air bubbles are coming to the surface. I've decided that if the trops come back, maybe I'll have some place for them next year, if not, I'll settle for hardies only. I do have seeds for some of the more exotic trops like Victoria and Euryale. I do also still have seeds for N. minuta. If I do have a greenhouse by next Winter, I may just replace my trops. It's all up to a higher power.

 

[SueSTx]

Mine have to be in the house for 7 months.  I was tempted to just throw mine out, but on the advice of someone I trust I decided to try a unique approach. 

This is  not exactly what was suggested:

 I placed the tubers in onion sacks and submerge them in room temp water over the weekend.  Then I let them "dry" out during the week and "wet" them down again.  After 2 months they still look viable...no soft tubers and still little sprouts.

After the first of April I will pot up those that look good and place them under a grow light so they will be ready to set out the first of June.  If any survive, GREAT...and if not...well I was gonna toss them anyway.  I just can't keep them going for 7 months in the house for 5 months outside.

[Vickie]

This is a terrible winter here in Missouri. Twelve inches of snow and temps going to be below zero. More snow coming. I have tubers of tropical lilies put away in storage.  have aquariums and a 100 gallon pond in the basement. But things are still not looking very good down there. The lowest it should get is 50* so things will just hang on is about all they can do.

[Desertponder]

This winter has proven to be rough for lily keeping. We have the 4th coldest December since they started keeping records in 1890 something.

I usually don't have problems with the stock tanks freezing. I keep pumps running to move the surface of the water and they might get a thin sheet of ice.
I have one stock tank heater that I put in the tank with the fish but didn't have one in the tank that just has plants. That tank nearly froze solid in a weeks time in this hard cold.
We went and bought another deicer and it slowly got the tank thawed. I have a feeling I've probably lost about half of the plants in the tank.
I have some extra hardies and the trops in sand in the basement so they should be o.k.
I also put some of the baby trops in the betta tank but they withered away.

[CT]

My tropical tubers are doing nicely in an aquarium, the hardies are outside in an unfiltered pond with a solar cover and are sending up small leaves.
Kay

[marla]

Last year for some unknown reason most of my tropicals rotted even though they were wintered the same way as I had for the 2 yrs prior, in a preform pond in the basement with grow lights.  This year I took the advice of another ponder and added a small pump bubbling to circulate the water and I have a small aquarium heater in although I really should get a bigger one.  So far the 3 tropicals that survived are doing well, so I'm crossing my fingers and will still try to get out and get a larger heater.

[Rad Michelle]

are you trying to keep them growing with the lights throughout the winter?

[bunny56lbc]

I keep my tropical w.lilies in a 700 gal. pond in the g'house . I usally use a 800 watt titamium(sp?)
aqua. heater in the pond to keep the lilies alive & several of them will keep blooming all winter. this year I got a 500 watt(titu) heater & it's doing the job too...a few lilies are still blooming .
I also put plastic over the pond( held up by pvc pipe) to help keep the heat from riseing up into the air . I've been doing it for 3 years now & it works for me .

bonnie

I overwinter 30 tropical w.lilies & am able to keep water hyacinth's for next year....I start out with 3 hyacinth's & ended up with over 50 last Spring...

[PondJoy]

I just assumed that I would have to replace my tropical lilly.  It's my first one and I didn't even think about pulling it out and bringing it inside.  Duh....  of course we aren't used to weather like we are having now either.  25 degrees in Houston!  Guess I will wait and see what happens in the spring!  Shopping for a new lilly will be fun too!