#nymphaea pygmaea

(Where do these posts go, houseplant blog or gardening blog?) I overwintered my water lily in a bucket of water, no extra light until February when it was starting to look a little too doom and gloom. Despite being the cheapest light I could find it seems to work and he’s growing. There’s now a little light coming in from the window as well but since he’s on the floor, not a lot of that will reach him. He did lose his buds but seems promising for the summer.

I want to repot it later. It’s in a net pot and I want one without drainage as it’s supposed to help the plant get all the fertilizer you put in the pot and doesn’t leak into the water, and neither does the clay. Not sure where or how to find these pots and I actually bout a plastic tin of cookies for the lotus so maybe I will have to buy more cookies?

So after being outside in full sun all summer, I brought the waterlily in before it froze. Unsure what to do with it I just put it in a bucket hoping that it would be okay. I used an app on my phone today and it gets about 25 foot candles which is basically nothing, "Plants referred to as low light intensity plants generally should receive between 50 and 250 foot-candles." Source found here.

I thought the reason why it hadn't flowered during the summer was perhaps that I didn't fertilized it enough but here it is, stuck in a bucket with a small amount of water and no light, and what's that? A freaking bud.

Found someone other than James Wong growing dwarf water lilies in their aquarium. It’s from a French message board btw. It looks very tiny just like James’s, I think that’s salvinia and that doesn’t grow very big as far as I know. 

So it's almost 2 o'clock in the morning and no mosquitoes right now but I did have some yesterday. See what happened is, I brought my water lily in and I have it in a bucket on the floor in my bedroom because I can't winter store it cool. I hope it gets some light from the window and some of the grow lights. Knock on wood, so far so good.

Other than the mosquitoes that is... guess there were a bunch of eggs in the soil so here I am, mosquitoes in the bedroom.

Despite this I caught myself thinking... "Maybe should buy another one next summer?"

Maybe I should get a proper indoor pond, not an aquarium but a pond with some platys.

Pictures of this tank were basically the reason I wanted to get a tank and I NEEDED a water lily, how cool is that. I did buy a one and I had it outside in a bucket thing over the summer and... I have the same as that lily in the picture and how on earth does it fit in that tiny tank!? Mine is huge with long roots going everywhere! The tank it the picture is “shoebox sized” and water lily wouldn’t fit that thing. Maybe I’ll try to cut a piece of the rhizome in spring and see if I can plant it in something very small. 

Some of the first leaves on my water lily were super cute and tiny but then they grew pretty large, two three leaves would cover the surface of that tank. Is there a trick to keep them small or? 

Winter storing your waterlily can be done in a lot of ways, a common one around here is to putting it somewhere that doesn't freeze but is cold, like a garage or something. If it's stored cool it doesn't need light, or so I have read.

I don't have that option though so... yeah, I bought a heavy duty bucket (the ones used to make concreate in) and I will have it indoors, I might have to provide it some light. I think that's the issue, and I will probably have to hardy it off when putting it out again next year (if it lives) as it will be used to warm water.

Well, we'll see how it goes. It's just what... four or five month until I can put it back out.