Lily spreads?

[ThornyGardener]

In a pond in z6 with only 5 hrs of sun and only 3 months of 70+degree water (unless I put a heater in it), is the designated spread of a tropical lily accurate? Like a terrestrial perennial, do they get leggier – longer stemmed – with less light? Do they produce less pads in a reduced growing season? Does the combination of these factors mean they require less than the full stated spread?

I have a still-naked 8 x 5 x 1.5 lily-only pond. My plan was to put hardies in four 20” x 9” quarter-barrel sized black pots. (“So very cost effective! They can just be wintered over,” I conned, er, explained to my husband, already peeved by the painfully-expensive, 10x-over-budget koi pond build last year.) 

But this was before I spent the winter reading here about tropicals. (Oh yes indeedy. Gotta get me some of these.) Now I want to keep only one pot of a hardy (because I already have one), two pots of tropical and one pot with a night bloomer. (Medium spread)

Will they place nice and share the space?

[Sean]

See my article at http://www.americanponders.com/forum/index.php?topic=139.0
my display pond is basically the same size as yours and I have dozens of tropicals growing.

Cheers,
Sean

[Desertponder]

I'm basically in the same zone and climate conditions as you are. I don't have very good luck with tropicals. I don't think I would say they get "leggy" in our climate. My issue with them is that they have a difficult time getting started and growing enough to start blooming before the weather starts cooling off. I've had better luck with trops that I've placed in small water gardens such as a 100 gallon stock tank. The water warms up in them better and seems to help jumpstart them. Ones that I place in my bigger 800 gallon tanks never do well because the water doesn't get as warm and stays cooler.
I have about 3 tropicals for this year but for the most part I stick to the hardies for my climate. The trops are just too much trouble and tempermental for my tastes.

[ThornyGardener]

Very interesting, Sean. Thanks for the info. (Nice website, too.)

That's what I was afraid of, Shanna. It's been abnormally cold here -- it was only 56 today. I think this first year, I may try just one of the most cold and shade tolerant tropical lilies and otherwise stick with hardies. If the trop does well, I'll plant more next year; if not, lesson learned.

Thanks much.

[Desertponder]

If you have the patience and the will to experiment with the tropicals, by all means do so.
Lavender Lace is one you might give a try. Out of the few that I've tried it seems to be pretty tough. I've had it for 3 years now and its survived some pretty cold temps and winter storage in the aquarium when others I've tried have quickly went down the tubes.