Guess what I found

[matherfish]

You guessed it. Hardy waterlily seedlings. I know who the mama is, but the father hasn't confessed yet.  Thought I would show you all for those who have never seen what natural seedling propagation crosses look like. They are brown and some are very green, near the pads. Sorry the pic is not good, but had to take it with my phone, as I didn't have my camera. All babies have been moved to their own nursery tub.  

[Esther]

So when would I deadhead the blossom? Or do you wait until it has gone to mush and dig out the seeds. I suppose in your pots, you just let nature take it's course. If I were to ----------- never mind. What am I thinking?? That's what I don't need-----more waterlilies!!!! I cringe when I have to divide mine because I hate throwing them away.

[KatFish]

Interesting.  So, who's mama?  

[matherfish]

Katfish- Actually, the momma is one of my crosses. I am posting a pic of momma.
Esther- I do not dead head the lilies, and let nature take its course. Unless it is a lily that I am really fond of, I do not try to grow them out. I just throw the seedlings away.  Even when I do keep them, most of the seedlings do not survive because I do not take special care of them. Takes more space than I have to raise every seedling. I have just a few seedlings. I did try to keep some Arc-en-ceil seedlings, but forgot about them and let them die. I have a Mayla seedling and a Louise Villamarette seedling.

[tranquility]

I pulled one of my lilies today and saw a bunch of seedlings--I yanked them out and tossed them...not sure if they would have survived or not but, I didn't want to take that chance...
Lawanna

[matherfish]

That is what I usually do too, Luwanna, but knowing the momma plant, thought it might be interesting to see what pups would look like, if they survive.

[Esther]

That pink is soo vivid. Just beautiful.

Yah, that is what I meant when I said forget it...Sounded fun for a minute there though. LOL

[Bearb]

That's pretty neat. I didn't get any volunteers last year (at least none that lived long enough for me to know about it). I think I will keep a closer eye out this year. It would be fun to baby a seedling and try to guess what the flower will look like.

[KatFish]

Pretty flower.  I must be 'lucky' as I've not had seedlings yet, though I do deadhead pretty regularly. Gives me an excuse to play in the water 

[Marie Fisher]

This thread  is informative, a pleasure to read.  Wish all threads were like this!!!

Marie

[Esther]

I try to deadhead too, to keep the gunk down in the pond but lots of times I get behind. I have found the seed pods that look like they are making babies but never kept them. I don't have anything special anyway and can't remember the names of what I do have so I guess it doesn't matter.

[matherfish]

Sometimes it is fun just to see what the babies look like.    If there is gunk in the bottom of the pond, they will start to grow. Fish will sometimes eat them, but some may escape.
It doesn't matter if they have a name, they can be beautiful without one.    Names are just to identify them when buying, trading or discussing them. In a pond, they are just beautiful red, pink, white, yellow, orange, whatever. If you do not know the name of a lily, just call it by color. So not guess at the proper name if you do not know it for sure. Most ponders do not keep up with the names. They just enjoy the beauty. 

[PondmaninAL]

I don't dead head. That's why I ended up with a million N. minuta seeds and a seed pod on my white night bloomer last year. I do bag seed pods if they form. I never have to worry about hardy water lilies though, they never let nature take it's course. :'( The only seedlings that I ended up with was from a lost bagged N. minuta pod that I finally found over the weekend. I will be potting some of them hopefully today.

[jax]

I'm green with envy.  I can't even get one lily going this year let alone getting excited over the "kids".  Sure wish I could figure out what I am doing wrong.  I love that beautiful pink.  It is so vivid. 

[matherfish]

I do not deadhead my lilies. Just do not have time, so occassionally seedlings appear. I do not try to cross varieties deliberately so I do not have any idea which plant may have produced the pollen and what the seedlings could look like. Since the number of seedlings could be from 50+ plants per bloom, I obviously cannot grow them all out. Just let a few and I have no idea if the ones I grow out are the best of the bunch. If I let them grow long enough to see what the pads look like, I might could decide which ones to keep on that basis, but usually I do not wait that long even. Time and space constraints. There are several "named" lilies that were actually natural crosses that ended up being worth naming, so do not think that just because it was not deliberately crossed manually that it is not worthwhile. Deliberate crosses are done so often to get a specific look or trait. Beautiful lilies cancome from natural crosses as well. Seedlings will never be the same as the mother plant or father plant, unless they are species plants, because they will have traits from both. That is what makes the hobby have so many various plants with various colors, sizes and bloom shapes. 

[Esther]

Interesting Frank. Do you know how many lily plants you have right now?

[matherfish]

Most of my tropicals are just sprouts, maybe 6" long stems and up. I probably have at least 250 potted up, but most of the pots contain a corm instead of a plant and they have around 5 plants on them I would guess as an average. I would estimate having over 1000 tropical plants if all were potted up individually. I usually separate them as I sell them. There are over 65 varieties if they all survived the winter.
On hardy lilies I have over 350 plants and over 40 varieties. Guess you can say I have enough! 
I wasn't planning on today being picture day, but here is a few pics to give you an idea of what I have in lilies. Two are pics of two of the three sections of the greenhouse, and 1 is of the outside tubs. The black tubs are for trops, and the white are for hardy lilies. It has no bearing as to color of the tub as to how the lily does, I just set it up that way.

[PondmaninAL]

Frank, if you need more room and start to throw baby water lilies away, I'll send you my address.

[Ky Kim]

    WOW, oh WOW......also look at those Happy Lotus

[Esther]

Wonder how close Goodlettsville is to Crossville. My father and his wife own property there in some retirement area.

[matherfish]

Esther, I am three hours from Crossville. I think the place you may be referring to is Fairfield Glade.
Thanks, Pondmaninal. I might just do that. I found a tropical stray today in a tub that has a pot in it from last year. the pot had a small plant growing from a corm, but there was a small seedling floating on the water. I will investigate tomorrow to see if there are more seedling survivors or not. Amazing that the crom sprouted after the winter we had, and that a seed (maybe more) survived and is growing!  Shows what a single seed can do. Mother nature at work!

[frogman3]

Crossville, TN Esther ? I spend a week there on Lake Holiday every summer, and Love it!

I think you need more tubs Matherfish. You must go through a ton of mosquito dunks!

[karen J]

Those pictures are so amazing! I love seeing how real people grow their stuff... crates, hoses, and all. I used to think all that stuff needed to be put away before I took a picture, kind of "perfect" if you will. Now, I love to identify with reality. The reality of crates and hoses.   Beautiful plants, btw.

[Esther]

Yes, Fairfield Glade, Tn. To this day I can't figure where their heads were buying it. But that is another looooong story.

We were down there late winter. And came home up through the center of TN. We ended up in a state park and it was a lovely drive. I wouldn't mind spending some time in TN and banging around just exploring.

[KatFish]

Wow - if we had a fainting smily----  OMG!  I would be in heaven.  I'm really starting to think I missed my calling.

[Esther]

I starts with one container KF and it's never too late.

[Kat]

From my understanding, Frank has been lucky enough to work a deal with farmers to get those tubs leftover from some type of food for livestock.  Otherwise, check with Lowes or Home Depot for their patio ponds if they've got them in stock.  It is very addictive if you've got the room.  Anything that holds water ... kiddie pools, livestock water tanks, galvanized wash tubs, old bath tubs, old spas, plastic barrels cut in half, etc.  An old clawfoot tub can be very charming looking with water running from the spout for a fountain.

That's a lot of work there Frank.

[matherfish]

Thanks, all. It is a lot of work.
Kat is right. I started getting the idea of the tubs when I saw some on a farm and asked about them. There were only a couple, but knowing they came with minerals for cattle, I asked the local co-op if they would give me the names of farmers who bought a lot of them. I finally got the name of one person and he had about 20. All of the white tubs are half plastic barrels that I got from car washes. I cut them in half. After I ahd started doing that, and finding a few black tubs occasionally, a friend of mine told me that the maufaturer was not too far from me, about a three hour drive, and that they had been colledting them from farmers who had no sue for them, and selling them. I drove up there with my 16' trailer and bought all my trailer would hold without blowing out. I now have over 300 half barrel tubs. Also you see I use diddie pools to get plants started. Shallow water helps the sprouts to grow faster! They are moved to the tubs when bigger.
As Kat said, you can use anything that holds water for a pond. Use your imagination and then decorate it or not. It is yours to enjoy in whatever way you want. I have some aluminum water pitchers that I made little ponds in one time. That is the fun of ponding! You can do whatever you can afford, and you have room for.
Gotta go buy a few more kiddie ponds....

[matherfish]

I found more seedlings today, this time in the Arc-en-ceil tub! I started a new thread with info on it and pic on thread titled Arc-en-ceil hybrids.