Planting Water Lilies

nrlymrtl ♦ August 6, 2012 ♦ 4 Comments

Snail beneath a lily in a pot on the porch.

When we moved here in 2002, our pond had one lonely water lily, in pink. Over the years it grew. Last year, My Main Man braved the pond scum and placed in 4 more and a pond iris. The iris didn’t make it, nor did 2 of the lilies. So this year, M3 wanted to do what we could to make the lilies to thrive. We bought a few lilies, dry, from a name-brand store. Then we bought several more from a local water plant farm. We had several floral pots (recycled from a name-brand store with a floral department) and we placed a water lily in each, filling them with some pond water and topping off with well water. There they sat from some long weeks on the porch, getting bigger.

And growing snails!

I like snails and I hardly ever see them here in the high desert. I am guessing there were some baby snails in the pond water that we placed in the pots and they finally grew large enough for me to notice them.

Pink lily that came with the house.

A few weeks ago, Cousin S was here for a visit and we gave her the camera while M3 waded into the pond and used the leaf rake to remove the algae and duck weed, creating a clear spot for each lily. To my delight, lots of interesting pond creatures came up with the algae.

First, in the floral pots we found this swimming insect (still larval stage?). We guessed that it would turn into a dragonfly in not too much longer, so we left it a pot of water on the porch.

Dragonfly larva?

Next, we found a few interesting bugs in the pond weeds, including this big, beautiful water beetle.

Water beetle!

We also inadvertently scooped up a small silver fish, which seem to be plentiful in the pond. The larger orange ones were not to be seen this day, but did put in an appearance the next day.

Slippery little silver fish.

I have wanted to handle one of the extraordinarily large frogs for some time. M3 managed to catch a few small ones in the rake, and this giant tadpole. I was so excited, just like a little kid. Cousin S was perfectly fine doing all the camera work.

Large polywog!

Frog with a little tail.

Big, beautiful dragonfly.

Mud-covered pond cricket?

Itty-bitty blue dragonfly.