Water Lilies at Burnby Hall

I do not know a lot about Water Lilies but I know a man who did.

Major Percy Stewart carved out the two lakes at Burnby Hall Gardens to provide private trout fishing for himself and his friends. In the 1950′s he planted a small collection of water lilies to beautify his trout lakes. Now this garden is home to a National Collection of Hardy Water Lilies. If you visit you will see why it is the biggest collection, of over 80 varieties, to be found in a natural setting in Europe.

Tips for Growing Hardy Water Lilies

• Water lilies normally require several hours of full sun each day to flower properly,
• Avoid heavy shading over the pond
• Most varieties tend to do best in undisturbed water, so they should be planted away from fountains and waterfalls.
• Plant out between late spring and summer so that they can establish themselves before winter.

New Water Lilies

• The plants should be prepared by pruning any long roots and removing overly long stems or old foliage to encourage new growth.
• Pot up in suitably sized plastic mesh pond baskets. Initially they need to be supported so that they are no more than 6 inches below the surface
• Gradually lower as they grow until the container can finally rest on the bottom of the pond.

Care and Maintenance

• Blooms are short lived, lasting only three or four days
• Rapid leaf or pad growth will happen in good conditions. This helps control algae.
• Split large clumps to propagate new plants
• Feed with special tablets of fertilizer and deadhead after flowering.

Check out Dwarf Water Lilies.
A selection of Water lily varieties are covered on an earlier page

Pond wizard is a treatment that will help control algea and increase water lily flowers – available from Thompson Morgan