Latest updates on most of the water lilies in my garden, been flowering on daily basis for years, simply amazing and beautiful aquatic plant. Grow in full sun and pretty hardy on its own, remember to add some fertilizer once a while and it will grow healthy.
Water lily flower will open and close within a day or two, each session last only a few hours which attracts bees to pollinate it.
This water lotus has a different flower formation from my earlier post and the early stage of growing water lotus is exactly the same. This lotus plant seems to bloom often but the flower last only a day or two.
The beginning.
The end.
The details.
Water lotus will beautify your pond and one of the most beautiful plant for any water feature. Can be easily grown from seed by just soaking them in water and the seed will germinate within days. Transfer to a soil based pot once the roots and leaves has formed, remember they need plenty of sun to grow healthy.
Water lotus leaves all try to compete with each other to get to the top for the most sun light, you will need more space if you want more bloom.
Once the flower wither, usually more than 2 weeks, make sure you dry the seed pod and you will get dozens of seeds to propagate more water lotus plants.
Water Lettuce is a beautiful floating plant but does not fit well in an aquarium cause all you will see is its roots. Mainly used for pond or outdoor water feature as it require plenty of sunlight. The first sign of lack of light is the shrinking of size and later from green to yellow. A very easy to cultivate plant and requires plenty of space to grow once it reaches maturity. Water Lettuce can even be used to feed some aquatic animals but mainly, i think they are great water filters which cleans up all the dirt in an outdoor setup.
The hairy surface functions as water resistance and the leaves are thick and contains hollow foam like feature. This help them to float and they never sinks, snails love them such as apple snails.
This beautiful floating plant can grow up to 10 or 12 inches with the help of fertilizer or healthy soil base.
This Echinodorus is sold to aquascaping hobbyist where most of them just submerged the whole plant into their aquarium but they don’t thrive. Lack of CO2 could be the cause and this plant simply thrive if partially submerged and need plenty of sun.
This plant can be propagated easily by adventitious plantlets.
I had been growing mine only 20% submerged and they thrive under hot sun. Once mature, they will grow flowers on runners which will turn into young plants once it touches water.
Water Hycinth, a common floating aquatic plant found in lakes and river banks throughout southeast asia. It produces one of the most beautiful flower and a healthy hycinth has a shiny green leaves. This is a very easy to grow plant and need very little care, just plenty of lights and can be used to filter your little fish pond or outdoor aquarium.
I grew my first batch in a poly tank and added some soil in it. They multiply quickly and they will grow bigger if the water contain fertiliser which comes from changing my aquarium water.
A shocking discovery, healthy water hycinth seems to have blue roots, most aquatic plants reference books says white roots are healthy. However, this is white and blue, sometimes black. Those water hycinth which has total black roots usually are the dying ones and they are really tough plants, if you sense something is wrong, just add tap water and flush out some old water. That should fix it, you wont run out of hycinth, usually you need to remove some to prevent congestion.
Young floating fern have a bright green colour and the leaves are small. This plant grow extremely fast and well with plenty of light. Begin to thrieve and turn darker green once the leaves reaches water surface and eventually grow above it. You can grow it with or without soil but from my experience, the floating fern will grow into huge leaf given soil and those without soil the root remain tiny same as the leaves. This plant can be cultivated easily by removing the leaf either just laying it floating on water or you can plant it in soil.
The difference between a young and mature plant are the colour, the design of the leaf and the thick stem or branch.
I came across a small little plant which looks great for aquascaping and started out in a small tank. The tiger lily remain a tiny leaf plant and barely grow. The leaves started to turn yellow and thining which forced me to move it outdoor into a bigger tank along with other aquatic plants. Now, lets see what happen in the months to come.
This small little plant grew so fast and rapid it filled up my 2m by 2m tank which is its true identity and potential with natural sunlight and rain. Tiger lily used for aquascaping seems a little tough on other plants since they need plenty of lights. Its either they die of lack of lights or too much light will cause an algae bloom in the tank. A mixture of cabomba and tiger lily seems like a perfect fit because tiger lily seems to float on the surface while cabomba fill up the rest of the space under it.
Tiger lily starts to flower once the mature and they flower on daily basis if everything goes well. A little fertilizer might help and change fresh water if not exposed to rainwater.
These little helper will help pollinate all your flowers and thank God for them, truly amazing assistant.
Vallisneria is a very good looking plant for aquascaping and common fishkeeping background design. This plant need plenty of light to thrive and given a good condition, it grows pretty fast by having runners. Not suitable for tanks with cichlids or bigger fish becasue they love to shred the leaves and all of it will be stuck in your pump.
This is an outdoor cultivation tank for vallisneria and with the help of fertime soil, vallisneria grows quickly and most will flower.
mybigSfarm 