This brief introduction to the pond plant section of our website and nursery is intended to answer potential questions from both novice water gardeners and customers from outside the lower mainland who will require their pond plants to be packed and shipped. We also encourage new pond owners to take a moment to read our brief introduction to pond plants: Introduction to Water Gardening.
 

Water Lilies: In our descriptions of the various water lily cultivars, we have attempted to provide the pertinent information that you will need when choosing a variety. Commonly used terms are as follows:
Changeable: Water lily flowers typically last for 3 days. The flowers of changeable cultivars undergo a colour change after the bloom opens, generally progressing from a light shade to a darker shade. For example, Nymphaea 'Indiana' opens apricot and gradually darkens to a deep orange-red by the third day.
Free flowering: Good bloomer, produces an abundance of flowers.
Mottled: Blotches of colour, i.e. a green leaf blotched with maroon.
Shade Tolerant: Most water lilies need 8 hours of full sun a day in order to bloom satisfactorily. Water lilies placed in shady ponds usually fail to bloom and generally appear sickly. However, there are some cultivars that will bloom with as little as 3 hours of direct full sun per day. We have identified these cultivars with the term 'shade tolerant', but be aware that even these cultivars will not grow well in total shade.
Single or Double Flowered: This term refers to the amount of petals forming the flower. A double flowered variety produces many flower petals, similar in appearance to peonies or dahlia flowers.
Spread (size): This refers to the approximate amount of surface area that the leaves (lily pads) of the plant will cover in your pond by mid-summer. The leaves spread out in a circular pattern from the submerged lily pot. A small cultivar will generally produce a spread of approx. 3 ft, a medium-sized cultivar will cover 4 to 5 ft, and a large cultivar can produce a spread of 7 ft or more. Spread is an important consideration, as we recommend a minimum of 60% to 70% surface coverage of your pond by summer in order to reduce the occurrence of algae blooms (pea soup appearance).

Availability: Our water lily pages are used as a reference by both our retail and wholesale customers. We do not stock all the cultivars listed in our website at our nursery. Wholesale customers place their orders early in the season and are able to pick from our full list of cultivars. Retail customers can also pre-order bareroot rhizomes (See: 'Early Season Discount' below) but such orders must be placed before March 1st. It is not practicable for us to import small orders after our our main shipments have arrived in the first week of March. Our retail and professional landscaper customers are able to pick from approximately 40 different potted water lily cultivars here at our nursery in the early season. We are often sold out of certain cultivars by early July. We try to vary our selection from year to year, and we hope that our retail customers will understand that it is not possible for us to maintain stock in every cultivar that we list on our website. If your desired cultivar is not in stock during our current season, feel free to request it and we will consider stocking it the following year. We also post our retail water lily availability list to our website early in the season, usually by mid-March.
Marginal Pond Plants: We usually have the majority of these plants in stock during the course of the season. We occasionally sell out of some varieties by mid-summer.
Soil (Potting Media): We use a heavy, clay-based loam for potting those aquatic plants which produce large flowers, such as water lilies, lotuses, irises and others. Also, we have found that some marginal aquatics such as Thalia dealbata and Flowering Rush (Butomus sp.) appreciate this heavy soil. Tip: if your garden soil is heavy enough to pack into a 'mud pie' when moistened, it should be fine for your water lilies. Not all pond plants require this type of soil, in fact a heavy clay soil can inhibit the growth of plants indigenous to boggy areas. We use a lighter mix consisting primarily of coconut fibre (coir) and pumice for most marginal aquatic plants such as marsh marigolds, grasses, rushes and reeds.

Pots: We use standard black nursery pots for the majority of our pond plants.
Hardy water lilies are potted in 2 gallon short pots (approx. 8" diameter by 8" tall) with the exception of pygmy varieties which are potted in 1 gallon short pots (6" x 6"). Tropical water lilies, regardless of the size of the tuber, are started off in 4" pots very early in the season and are periodically repotted until they reach the 2 gallon short pot size, usually by late June. Marginal pond plants are potted in 5.5" square pots, 1 gallon pots, and 2 gallon pots, depending upon the species and maturity of the plant. The price varies according to the size of the pot. Lotuses are potted in 5 gallon or 7 gallon self-contained tubs (no drainage holes).

Shipping: All aquatic plants are removed from their pots and have the potting media washed off their roots prior to shipping. Water lilies will also have their roots and leaves trimmed. Due to the labour involved in this process, we do not discount the bareroot price from our regular nursery pricing for potted plants. However, water lily orders placed in the early season before the rhizomes are potted will qualify for a discount (see below).

Early Season Lily Discount: Orders for bareroot water lily rhizomes placed before March 1st qualify for a 20% discount off our listed retail potted price. Special orders for water lilies not usually stocked also qualify for this discount, but must be pre-paid at the time of ordering. In March, we receive new shipments of water lily rhizomes and also divide our nursery stock plants. We are able to offer a discount during this period because the rhizomes are not yet potted up for the coming season. We are usually finished potting up by late March, at which time this discount is no longer available.

Floating Aquatic Plants: Plants such as water hyacinth and water lettuce are tropical plants and cannot be shipped until April 1st. in coastal British Columbia, or mid-April to other Canadian destinations.