14 tropical blooms today

[Kat]

14 tropical blooms today in my covered ponds.  Will probably take the plastic off this week after the storm we are supposed to be getting tomorrow.  It traps the scent of the blooms & they smell so good.

May have to click reload/refresh if pics don't show up.

[purplepshn2004]

Ooh la la!

[Mike S.]

Love the way you "green-housed" your pond! And the results look great, too.

Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL

[miguynmkoi]

First of all "you're Killing me!"  Your lilies look so happy and beautiful!  I love the tent too.  Some day, if not years, I want to try the tent over my pond.  At least the fishies will appreciate the warmer winters.

May be months before my lilies float me a flower 

[Rad Michelle]

love love love it

[CoolShades]

Nice photos.  We used to have a similar set up for propagation on a few of our ponds one 30 x80 ft(2) and the other (25x25).  Really kicked out tubers for us to generate in xs of 30k lilies a year.  Only thing is from April to October it was so hot we only went in it at 5-8 AM. 

[Reedman]

I saw one 9" shoot on one of my lilies - still a foot below the surface.   :'(

Nice pics!

[Kat]

Thanks.  Within the last couple of weeks even more are putting up buds.  Will need to remove the covers soon so I can get the biggest plants moved although I've got to clean my big corner pond first.  So much work & so little ambition   

Love seeing the blooms but it has gotten too hot too fast here.

[SHARONKS55]

Hi Kat! This is Sharon from dfwfishbox.com. Thanks for telling me about this nice forum! Love the photos of your covered pond and plants!

[perplexed ponder]

soooo pretty. I just have a few pads up so far here in the north.

[Kat]

Hi Sharon,  be sure to visit us here now that you know about us

Counted 22 tropical blooms the other day.  So it is definitely getting warmer here.

[SHARONKS55]

I sure will!

[greenthumbnails]

Wow, I followed your advice and did a gh for the winter. Hoping to have less casualties this year after the final count.  My floaters became overgrown, unlike your gh which is full of lily pads and flowers! How do you keep things under control in there?  As long as I don't lose any more tubers I am happy. 

[Kat]

I did have some Parrot's Feather in there over the winter to help keep the water cleaner & it grew like crazy.  Pulled it out as soon as I saw it was getting too big.  Luckily it hadn't rooted itself too much into the pots.  The King Tut papyrus did go crazy too & it was a monster when I pulled it out today.  Having a mild winter also helped.  The biggest drawback are the covered ponds not getting any rain to help freshen the water.  One year I forgot to check the water level & it was down a lot.  Had to run water to the pond from my Python aquarium hose to top off before the deep freeze set in.  Hope your making a GH prevented your loosing any tropicals.

[Julles]

That is beautiful, Kat.

I repotted 2 weeks ago, and now have SIX blooms coming off one purple lily.       I'm disappointed that my Little Sue mini didn't come back, though, but the huge night bloomer is slowly coming to life.

Say, is it possible to walk around your plastic-covered pond?  It looks like the plastic comes right to the edges.  How do you do maintenance during the winter? 

[Kat]

I'm surprised Little Sue didn't come back for you but sounds like your other lilies are doing well.  I cannot do any maintenance other than moving the cinder blocks out of the way & lifting up the plastic on the one end that I don't screw down with a board.  Otherwise if I'm really desperate, the screwed in boards have to be taken off that holds the plastic down.  At least the herons cannot get the fish 

[Pam]

The blooms are so beautiful Kat! I bet the smell is heavenly