Is Perry's Baby Red lazy?

[ThornyGardener]

I received two same-sized small plants (Perry's Baby Red and JoAnne Pring) at the end of May, they were planted in composted manure and each put in a half barrel. They are fertilized regularly with Jobes Tomato Spikes (unfortunately the new formula). They get the same amount of sun (5-6 hrs) and the water is very warm, in fact I am always startled at how warm it is compared to the lily pond. After a period of brittle leaves and stems, both have grown and leafed out well.

JoAnne has been blooming like crazy for 6 weeks. But Perry is all talk and no show. He has an abundance of healthy mature leaves but has never put up a bud. So what gives with this lazy boy? Is he just a slow starter and will do better next year (but geez not even one bud?) or does he require full sun or what?

[Mike S.]

Don't know about the JoAnne Pring, but I can tell you about my Perry's Baby Red.

I potted mine in a one gallon pot. It grew well, but didn't seem too interested in blooming as fast as others types planted that same day. But it did put out a lot of pads.

The tuber quickly grew across that one gallon pot. When it reached all the way across it, it started blooming. One bloom at a time at first, then it started putting up "doubles" and "tripples." Looking at the pot, I now see that the blooms are comming up from three different points along the tuber.

Right now, I'm thinking rather than waiting untill spring, I might re-pot it, and divide it to get two plants potted, and the rest floating in a bucket to see if the rest of the tuber can be convinced to throw off more plants for next yeat.

When I bought my Mungkala Ubon, I got 5 tubers. I floated them for a couple of weeks, only taking one section of a tuber and potting it. Since then, I've taken small starts from several tubers and grown them. And I still have most of the original tubers floating in a bucket, with quite a few new "eyes" starting more plants. By this time next year, I could easily have 100 plants, all from those 5 tubers.

Love to see if the Perry's Baby Red will be able to follow that act.

Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL

[SueSTx]

I got my Baby Red last summer and had only 4 or 5 blooms all together.  It is also in a gallon bucket.  I divided this year and hoped that it would do better.  At the beginning of summer, they were in the same tank they were last year.  They have about 10" to 12" of water over the pots.  When nothing happened, I moved all three.  I put one in full sun where other lilies were blooming nicely.  I put two in a tub with full morning sun and afternoon shade.  The one is full sun is the one with two blooms now.  I did notice that they opened early yesterday morning and were still open about 12 hours later.  That was a nice surprise.  I think I'll move the other two to full sun and see what happened.

[LeeAnne151]

Mine is in full sun in a pond a bit smaller than a bathtub planted in clay dirt on top of the liner. It has been a bloom machine. Joanne Pring took five years to really get going but Perry's Baby Red (which is much much larger BTW) was my best bloomer of all time until this year. I think I need to break off some chunks, I think it is overcrowded. The pads are humping up all over the place and trying to climb out of the pond.

This picture is from three years ago

[CoolShades]

Perry's baby red has always been a good bloomer, but I have it in full sun and I usually have 4 tubers/pot with lots of growth, i.e. this tuber branches and forms colonies readily.

[ThornyGardener]

Thanks, all.

Mike S: There are some terrestrial plants that like cramped roots. Maybe PBR is the same. Is it in full sun? (Wow! What do you do with all those tubers? I am completely out of room as it is.)

SueTx: Wish I had full sun to move it to. Lots of very old 80' oaks and 70' maples so I don't have any full sun. Lilies are north of the house and are shaded by 2 pm now.

LeAnn: Very nice. If I saw those kind of blooms, I would be happy. But not full sun here, my half barrel is much smaller than your pond and I don't have the patience to "Baby Perry" for 5 years.

I'll move the barrel to the garage this winter and give it a brief chance to redeem itself, but if it doesn;t produce a bloom by mid June next year, its outta here.

[Mike S.]

TG, I was going to say my Baby Red was in full sun, but then I realized that it is shaded about nearly half the day by the house and a patio canopy next to the pond. It is in a one gallon pot and was sitting up on a concrete block, not on the bottom of the Patio Pond. Currently, its in the center of a kiddie pool, waiting for me to decide if I should re-pot and divide it now, rather than in the spring. My thinking is that since it grew so fast, it will probably have time to recover and grow back to it's current size before it gets cool here.

As for the Mungkala Ubon tubers, they are simply sitting in a 5 gal. bucket, out in the sun. Every once in a while, I'll see string algae taking over, so I empty the bucket, remove the algae, and re-fill. Just well water. Several other tubers, Arc-en-ceil, Charlene Strawn, and Pink Ribbon are also parked in buckets, doing the same. I've also put out some dishpans for vavip pads, lately. Come spring, I hope to be completely overrun!   

Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL

[unprofessional]

Definitely not lazy. 

[Mike S.]

My Perry's Baby Red was potted just a few months back. This one went into a one gallon squat pot and placed on a concrete block to bring it within a foot of the surface.

The tuber has grown completely across the pot now, and has at least 3 different growth points along it's lenght. All three of these points are producing pads and blooms. So, I'd have to agree that lazy, it isn't.

It did slow it's growth a bit, I think I under-dosed the "once-season" fertilizer, so I supplimented that with the AgSafe  tabs. That got things going again. Those tabs really work well for me.

Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL

[Desertponder]

I got my PBR at the end of last summer. Its potted in a oil drain pan, full sun and I fertilize every 30 to 45 days. It has not bloomed this year. I'm in the process of booting lilies that don't do well and if it doesn't do better next summer it will get the boot also.
I had Joanne Pring several years ago and never could get it to bloom so it was sent packing also. Don't remember who I sent it to, someone on one of the ponding forums and they planted it and it did real well for them. 

[LeeAnne151]

BTW It was Joann Pring that took five years to get going for me not PBR.  PBR has been my best blooming waterlily.