Propagation, Culture, and Winter Care
There are many different methods for plant propagation. You should choose the method that best fits your soil, conditions, and plant type. Root division is the most popular choice of propagation for Hardy Water Lilies. There are other choices though. Consider some of the following methods that will help you adapt your propagation, culture and care for your plants through the winter, all based on your specific plant type.
Hardy Water Lilies
Root division is necessary for the health and overall care of your plant every two to three years regardless of creating new plants. If you leave them alone, the stock will become cumbersome, resulting in their life being seriously impaired and damaged. If your flowers deem to become sickly in appearance or listless after blooming for years, your plant will need root division, which normally restores your plant back to health very quickly.
Root division is a simple and fast process. When you have your plants ready for division, wash off the roots so you can clearly see them. Look for the growing points, which appear like the eyes of proputed potatoes that grow from the long cylindrical odorata and tuberose roots. Use a very sharp knife and cut each root into 6 to 8 inch parts, be sure to make sure each section has one to two growing points. Plant each rootstock, and each growing point will create a new lily.
You will need to decide whether you want to reproduce plants like the parent plant or if you want to create varieties or a new hybrid. If you want to match the parent plant, you simply need to keep matching those plants to them, and keep stray pollen away. You do not need to help with pollination, as Hardy's are self-seeding. To try to create a hybrid you will need to combine characteristics of two different species or varieties.
Developing Seeds
After about a week, if the pollination failed the seed pod and stem will rot. However, if you were successful, the seed pod should swell after a few weeks, dropping below the water as it enlarges. Tie a string to the stem of the seed parent, so you can pull the seed up and check on it occasionally. The seed will become with “fruit” of the lily, and about two to three days before it complexly ripens it will rise back to the surface. There is will burst and scatter seeds.The seeds of a water lily are a greenish-black or brown color. Some will be very small like apple seeds while others will be larger, almost the sides of peas. Certain species will produce only 6 to 7 seeds, while other varieties will produce ten times more. If you did not tie a cheese cloth around around the pod, then the seeds will float along the water surface, away from the mother plant to establish itself is a place where it has a chance to survive. The matter that causes the seed to float will dissolve in a few days, allowing the seed to sink.