How to Multiply Your Lily Pads

The large leaves of water lilies float on top the surface of ponds and water features, earning them their common name of lily pads. These plants grow from a swollen stem, called a rhizome, that collects and stores energy for the plant. The rhizome grows into new plants when cut apart. This allows you to propagate and grow more water lilies from your existing plants. Tropical, winter-tender and hardy water lily varieties are propagated by rhizome division.

Things You'll Need

Pond basket pots, 16-inch
Fertilizer tablets
Potting soil

Knife
Gravel

Instructions

- 1
  Remove the lily pot from the pond. Lift the roots from the pot and rinse the rhizomes clean in clear water.
- 2
  Set a pond plant fertilizer tablet in the bottom of each 16-inch pond basket. Fill the pots two-thirds full with a heavy potting soil.
- 3
  Cut the lily rhizome into 2- to 4-inch-long sections with a sharp knife. Each root section should contain the growing tip, where the buds and stems are emerging, and several roots, including the long anchor roots and the fine feeder roots.
- 4
  Place a rhizome piece in each pot at a 45-degree angle. Set it so the bud and stem tip is at the top and located near the center of the pot and the root section is at the lower end of the angle and near the edge of the pot. Plant up to three rhizome pieces per pot.
- 5
  Finish filling the pot with soil so only the tip of the rhizome pokes out. Cover the soil with a 1/2-inch layer of gravel.
- 6
  Set the pot back in the pond so the top of the pot is 12 inches below the water surface. Gradually move the pot to a deeper area as the lily grows, until the pot sits 24 inches beneath the water surface.

Clematis and Wilt-Pruf

How to Plant Agrostis Hyemalis

Growing Perennials