You might have admired water lilies blooming in ponds and assumed they need a large water body to grow. But you can grow these flowers at home too, even if all you have is a sunny terrace, balcony, or garden corner.
Ananthapur-based gardener and gardening content creator Deepu, who shares gardening tips on Instagram as @gardening.with.deepu, uses an easy pot-in-pot method to grow water lilies. All you need are two pots, some garden soil, compost, and a sunny spot.
Here is how the process works.
1. Begin with two pots
Take a 10- to 12-inch plant pot with drainage holes. You will also need a larger 16 to 20-inch tub, bucket, or container without holes.
The smaller pot will hold your water lily and soil, while the larger one will hold the water around it.
2. Get the soil ready
Fill the smaller pot about three-fourths full with a mix of 70 percent garden soil and 30 percent compost.
Keep the mixture fairly heavy. The gardener recommends avoiding cocopeat and other light potting mixes because they can float around once the pot goes into water.
3. Plant the rhizome
Place the water lily rhizome in the soil at a slight angle, keeping its growing tip pointing upwards.
Cover it lightly with soil, leaving the growing tip in a position where it can put out new growth.
4. Cover the soil
Once the rhizome is in place, add a thin layer of sand or small stones over the soil.
This keeps the soil from floating out when you start filling the outer container with water.
5. Add the water
Now place the smaller pot inside the larger container.
Slowly pour water into the outer container until it sits around five to 10 centimetres above the soil level.
As your water lily grows, you can gradually increase the depth to around 20 to 30 cm.
6. Let the sun do its work
Find a spot where your water lily gets around six to eight hours of direct sunlight every day.
This is especially important if you are waiting for those flowers to appear. The more suitable sunlight the plant gets, the better its chances of flowering.
7. Give it some regular care
As the plant grows, remove old leaves from time to time and keep the water level topped up.
Once a month, you can add compost to the pot. Deepu suggests wrapping the compost in a piece of cloth before adding it, so it stays contained instead of spreading through the water.
Why the two-pot setup helps
The pot-in-pot method keeps the soil and water separate while giving the water lily the conditions it needs to grow.
It also makes things easier when you need to change the water, add compost, or take the plant out for repotting or dividing. And that means you do not need a pond to enjoy a water lily at home. A couple of pots and a sunny corner can be enough to get started.
