It may even be necessary to keep the plant itself over the winter. This course is followed in case of seedling water-lilies which, during the year, have not advanced sufficiently to produce either seed or tuber. Though tubers have been formed, they may be immature and likely to decay before the next spring and it then becomes necessary to resort to other methods to retain the variety.

The experienced grower readily foresees which particular plant is liable to be in this undesirable condition in the fall and lays his plans accordingly. As soon as he has decided that the plant is worth keeping something which usually can be foretold in late summer – he digs it up and repots in a shallow box, five to six inches deep and about two feet square or even larger. After boxing, the plant is returned to the pond, where it will continue to grow until fall, at which time it can be transported bodily to a tank in the greenhouse. By keeping the water in the tank at ordinary greenhouse temperature, that is to say, 60° to 65° F., growth will not be interrupted, though somewhat retarded, and the tubers have an opportunity to mature. Following this method, it is highly probable that in the spring we will not only have the parent plant but likewise a number of small tubers, which will bloom the same season.

The temperature of the water in these growing tanks should be about the same as that of the house in which they are placed, that is to say, about 65° F. A little more heat is desirable for Nymphaea Sturtevantii, and a greenhouse pipe may be passed through the tank to supply the requirement. In an emergency, heating the tank with a coal-oil stove placed under it may be resorted to, but cannot be recommended as a general rule.

Keep the water level so that the edges of the pots are about two inches below the surface. When the leaves appear, keep them just floating, using blocks underneath to regulate the heights of the pots.

Many hybrids are practically sterile, and must be propagated from the” roots.” The same method may also be used for the true species. Indeed, one can never depend on the purity of seed where several kinds have been grown in the same tank. Natural hybrids are common. For pure stock of tender water-lilies we must commonly have recourse to the following method, beginning a year in advance.

A young plant of the desired kind is kept all summer in a 6-inch pot, in very shallow water. It will make good growth for some time, and then all the leaves will die off. If this does not occur naturally, it must be induced in August or early September, by raising the plant to the surface of the water, or partly out.

When the leaves are gone, a tuber the size of a robin’s egg should be found in the pot. Now remove the pot from the water, and let it become nearly dry. Take out the tuber, place it in clean sand, and keep it in a moist, temperate, or warm greenhouse atmosphere until next March. Never let the tuber get hard and desiccated, nor should it get really wet. It needs only a gentle air-drying.

Now, to propagate, set pot and sand and tuber in a warm tank in March. The tuber should be planted about an inch deep. Soon a shoot comes out, sends up leaves to the surface of the water, and makes roots. When one good floating leaf is established, wash away the sand from roots and tuber, carefully break off the shoot with its roots from the apex of the tuber, and replant both plantlet and tuber. Of course the plantlet now goes into rich earth. The tuber should give off at least one more shoot. The first
plant is pushed forward for-flowering, the next is kept to form a tuber for the following year.

The easiest tender nymphaeas to grow, to keep over winter, and to increase from the tuber, are N. flavo-virens, N. Wm. Stone, and N. Mrs. C. W. Ward. The easiest to grow from seeds are the blue lotus, Zanzibar water-lily, and Nymphaea flavo-virens.

The new season’s work begins about March 1st, when the tubers must be taken from the sand storage and potted up, according to size, in a 3- or 5-inch pot. Use a plain, heavy loam without adding either sand, leaf-soil or manure, but a little sand may be placed on the surface of the soil after potting is done. This will help to keep the plant free from algal growth, and to a certain extent prevent the accumulation of scum on top of the water.

The pots containing the tubers must be kept in water. For this purpose galvanized iron tanks painted with red lead are best. Tanks of wood may serve, but have a tendency to leak. Besides, they are awkward to handle. Copper tanks do not give good results. A tank six feet long and four feet broad, with a height of about nine inches will be found most ;,;erviceable. These can be obtained at a cost of from six to eight dollars. The tanks must be flushed every day or two, to remove any matter which might float on the surface and prove injurious to the young plants.

As soon as a plant gets too big for its pot, shift it into a size larger and continue to do this up to 7-inch pots. Never let a plant suffer from need of shifting. Giving a plant room and the best opportunities in early life, will largely counteract the effects of adverse conditions when it is older. This is a fundamental rule in water-lily growing which never should be lost sight of by the grower. It is all-important.

For various reasons it may be impossible to obtain seed of some plants. Many of the hardy nymphaeas produce it but rarely.

The hardy water-lilies give no trouble in winter as they are simply left outdoors where they grew. They take care of themselves! Natural ponds must obviously remain undisturbed; artificial ponds can have some water drained off, and in places where the winter cold is likely to be very intense, the plants can be covered with planks, hay, leaves or any other protective material ready at hand. Where hardy nymphaeas have been grown in tubs plunged in the ground, a simple covering with hay is sufficient. Loose tubs can either be plunged in the ground or removed to a cool cellar. When spring returns, the covering is removed at the same time as it is taken off other garden plants; the tubs can be brought from the cellar in March.

On the other hand, wintering the tender, day blooming water-lilies is really a difficult matter, requiring some skill and a good deal of space. Full-grown plants may be taken up bodily before frost, either in their tubs, or with a big ball of earth, and wintered in a large, warm tank indoors-there they will keep on blooming, with plenty of heat and light; or will merely keep alive in lower temperatures. Plants which have grown large and flowered, will not live over in any other way, excepting Nymphaea flavo-virens and its kin. Usually, therefore, the old plants are left outside to die; but the tubers may be collected.

The night bloomers are wintered more easily than the tender day bloomers. The plants may be taken from the pond either in their tubs, or with a large ball of earth, in October, and allowed to dry off slowly. In a month’s time there should remain from each plant one or two small tubers. Sometimes the tuber is smooth and oval; sometimes it is of a very irregular shape. It is kept in dry sand as prescribed for the day blooming kinds. In February or March the tuber is planted in sand and sunk in a warm tank. Soon it sends out a host of shoots. These mature one by one. They may be broken off and potted separately as soon as they have one or two floating leaves. Each tuber, therefore, of the night blooming waterlilies will produce enough plants to stock a large pond. It is a wise precaution to keep one or two plants in small pots all summer, just to form tubers. The old plants sometimes rot completely when taken in.

Tender nymphaeas that are to be carried over the winter for another season must be taken up before there is a chance of a killing frost, that is between October 15th and 30th. If possible, drain the pond of enough water to facilitate the work, removing the leaves from the plants and cutting off the roots about a foot from the center. Then take up the plants with as much soil as will cling to them.

The best winter quarters for the tender nymphaeas is under the bench of a greenhouse with a temperature of from 60° to 65° F.

With the mud clinging to them they show no differences. But most of the stellata type, such as Nymphtaea cterulea, have a central crown only, while others have one large and a varying number of smaller tubers. These mature during the next month or so, finally going into a dormant condition. Many of the stellata type produce tubers very sparingly and it is often necessary to retain the old rhizome. This old rhizome, however, has a tendency to rot during the winter when placed under the greenhouse bench, to prevent which it must be kept in a growing condition. This is best accomplished by potting it into a 7-inch pot, which is then submerged in a tank in the greenhouse, only a slight covering of water being essential. By the next spring the plant will be found ready to make a vigorous growth.

IN JANUARY

About the middle of January look over the collection to see what can be saved and what must be thrown away. In this the greatest care must be exercised as many of the most valuable types produce tubers often not larger than a pea.
While sorting the tubers, carefully remove the mud clinging to them, taking care not to injure the eyes. Then place them in rather dry sand, where they can remain till the time comes to start them into growth.

Where a natural pond is subject to a sudden increase in water volume, a water gate connected with an open ditch or culvert of sufficient size to divert the additional column of water must be built to obviate damage from floods. This sort of construction work is often complicated and had best be left to professionals, as in the end it will most generally be found a good deal cheaper, and will save much annoyance and disappointment.

If more than one pond is projected, connect them with each other by drains, making each a little lower than the preceding. With such an arrangement, water can be supplied from a fountain in the first pond, which may be entirely ornamental. This has the advantage that the sun’s rays heat the water drops in falling. Further, since it is chiefly the surface water which is carried off, the water in the last pond will have the highest temperature. This pond can then be selected for the growing of tender or heat-loving tropical nymphaeas, etc. Even the giant Victoria Cruziana does well in such an unheated pond in St. Louis, for example, but in more Northern regions, some means of artificial heating would have to be installed to help out.

It is often very desirable to drain a pond, in order to repair its walls, to clean it out, or to replant or take in tender species for the winter. Provision should be made for this. Both outlet and drain may be provided as follows: Lead a large (4- or 6-inch) pipe from the deepest part of the pond to some lower outlet-sewer or stream.

In the pond attach an elbow joint so as to let the pipe turn vertically upward. Screw into the joint a piece of pipe just long enough to reach up to the desired water level. Now, when the tank is full, any overflow may go down the pipe and out. To empty the tank, it is necessary to unscrew the upright piece from the elbow. The outlet should in any case be covered with a wire net to prevent clogging of the drain, to retain fish, and to keep floating plants from being lost.

Should the regular outlet be over a waterfall or dam, a large pipe may be laid in the lower part of this wall. A wooden plug at its inner end will close it on ordinary occasions, and can be removed when the pond is to be emptied. From small ponds the water can be dipped or siphoned out.

While puddled ponds are the most economical to construct they probably require most in the way of repairs. Besides, they are possible only where the necessary material – a heavy clay – is ready at hand. The first steps of their construction are the same as for all other ponds, at least as far as locating and excavating are concerned; but from there onward the methods of procedure differ. For while both in natural ponds and in ponds built of concrete there is no trouble about their ability to hold water, an artificial pond, where no concrete has been used, must be made water-tight by special means. For such a purpose hydraulic engineering knows of no better material than puddled clay, clay which by a mechanical process has been made homogeneous and very plastic.

Unless you absolutely feel the need of exercising your muscles it is better to get some unskilled labor to do this preparation. For, to reduce even a wheelbarrow load of clay to an absolutely homogeneous mass by working it over and over is no sinecure.

This is the process: Clamp together several boards so as to make a platform, say 6 x 10 ft. Spread the clay, a wheelbarrow load at a time, on the boards, and with a spade, chop it up thoroughly. No lumps larger than a walnut should remain. Remove all sticks, stones etc; then, adding a little water, begin to pound, using a wooden maul and do not stop pounding until a perfectly homogeneous mass, of the consistency of putty, has been obtained. When this is accomplished start on the second load.

Happily it is not necessary to use a layer more than four inches thick, so that for a pond twenty feet in length, and with an average width of ten feet, seven to eight wheelbarrow loads of puddled clay will be ample. The cost of this material is generally about 100 dollars, including hauling, puddling, etc.

Having reduced the clay to the proper consistency, spread it evenly over the bottom of the pond, thoroughly beating it down as laid.

The clay is fairly impervious to water and is not injured by freezing. The margins, from mean water level to a depth of twelve inches, may be lined with stones pounded into the clay. This prevents washing away by ripples or by moving ice. It is also advisable to cover the clay bottom with a few inches of sand so that the puddling may be protected and the mud not so easily stirred up. If this process is carried out consistently, an absolutely water-tight pond will result. The puddling is carried up to within three inches of the rim. Overflow pipes (preferably one pipe with two openings), and a water faucet are to be arranged for beforehand.

When an existing pond is to be converted for the growing of water-lilies, it must be our aim to provide for two things, the outline, and a proper depth of water at all times. The outline depends largely on surrounding conditions and no hard and fast rules can be laid down. The water level should be two feet above the bottom of the pond. Ordinarily this will necessitate the construction of a small dam which is easily constructed of grass sods. First empty the pond and then excavate to a depth of four feet where the dam is to be. Then put in the sod. Make the dam four feet wide at the base and at least two and one-half feet wide at the top, and thoroughly cover the sides with puddled clay.

In Country Life in America Mr. B. G. Foster gives the following account of a small tank of concrete construction:
With the assistance of a workman who had some knowledge of mixing concrete, I constructed a tank, the area of which at the top is about four by eight feet. The tank is three feet deep, and the walls, six inches thick, incline inward at a slight angle. The bottom is four inches thick, and is, like the walls, constructed of broken stone, sand and Portland cement, the whole having a lining of cement and sand.

It being the first of October before the tank was finished, it was allowed to stand over winter, a cover being placed over it to prevent the accumulation of water. In early spring, the bottom was partitioned by boards into four compartments, one foot in depth, which were filled with a rich mixture of well-rotted manure and good soil. In each compartment a lily root was set, and afterward the earth was covered with a thin layer of sand. The tank was then carefully filled with water from the well. But one filling walt necessary and the water has never been changed except by rain and evaporation. A few goldfish were introduced to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes and other obnoxious insects.

While awaiting developments I cleared away the accumulated dirt, sodded the margins around the garden, and let the ladies of the household plant gladioli, nasturtiums and the like in the neighbourhood, while a cluster of hollyhocks at one end served further to break the monotony. The first lily opened fifty-eight days after setting out the plants, and from that time the plants were in almost continual bloom until late in the autumn, as many as twelve blossoms being open at one time.

The mould used in forming the tank was made of waste lumber and consisted of four parts: a lower bottom-forming frame, a core or inside box, an outside casing or box, and a coping-forming frame. The hole having been dug slightly larger than the finished basin was to be, the bottom frame (A) was first placed therein. This frame, formed of old 2 x 4 scantlings arranged on edge, had inside dimensions equal to the outside dimensions of the bottom of the tank, and after having been placed in position, it was filled level with concrete, thoroughly tamped or packed, forming the tank bottom.

The side-walls were then moulded by means of the outer tapered box (B) and an inner correspondingly shaped box (C), the two boxes being constructed of rough boards joined’ respectively on their outer and inner sides by upright cleats (D).

These boxes had their walls spaced apart a distance equal to the thickness of the walls to be formed, and were placed in position as soon as the bottom frame had been filled. They were fastened together at the top and properly braced by strips (E) to prevent their springing under pressure, after which the space between them was filled with concrete, thoroughly packed. As soon as the material had sufficiently set, the inner box or core (C), and the top board of the outer box or casing, were removed, leaving the side-walls.

The space outside the walls was then filled in A lining of sand and cement was applied to the inner faces of the bottom and sidewalls, and the coping of the same material was formed upon the latter, the frame (E) constituting a guide in making the same.

In explanation it may be stated that the digging of the hole required a full day, as the ground was hard-packed yellow clay, and a ledge of rock was encountered in one end. Moreover, the proportion of sand and cement employed was two to one, whereas a greater proportion of sand might have been employed with success. These increased the cost somewhat.

The stone was picked up about the place, the sand was obtained in the immediate neighbourhood and, as already stated, waste and discarded lumber was employed, so that these materials, outside of the cost of breaking the stone, added nothing to the expense.

There is but one change or addition I would suggest to anyone who may construct a water garden along the above lines. This one has a draw-off pipe at the bottom and an overflow pipe at the top. It would be preferable, though not necessary, to have a third outlet from four to six inches below the overflow, to be closed in summer by a suitable plug and to be left open in winter, thus maintaining a lower level of the water during the cold season of the year.

Ponds built entirely of brickwork or concrete offer certain serious objections. In the first place, their banks cannot be planted. Besides, where the winters are very cold, projecting brick or concrete walls must be protected, and it is only where the ponds form part of a formal plan, that the grey masonry edges, projecting half a foot or more above the ground, are appropriate. As a general rule, a combination of concrete and puddling is to be preferred.

For a brick and cement pond, excavate to a depth of two and one-half feet. The sides are given a circular slope, which forms an angle of about 45° with the perpendicular. After the floor has been thoroughly levelled, bricks are laid and cemented into place. Then the walls are built in the same way. They must reach to within one foot from the bottom. The whole is finally covered with a one-half-inch finishing coat of cement.

The slope above the brick wall must now be covered with puddled clay, thoroughly pounded into place, allowing the clay generously to overlap the cement. It is not necessary for the puddled clay closely to follow the outlines of the pond; for this combination of brickwork and clay allows of a planting of the edges of the pond and some plants demand more space than others, and some even must be allowed to grow out at will if they are to look acceptable. This is true for the majority of plants used in the water garden, one great charm of which lies in the unforced contour lines. When finished, the pond will be about two feet three inches deep.

A water supply must now be arranged. This can come from a faucet, which is a good deal better than a fountain, since a continual spray is not good for water-lilies and has a tendency to give them a bedraggled appearance.

A low fence, constructed of perforated pipes and connected with the water system, may surround the pond. This will very effectually flush the pond, but is not necessary since a single faucet through which the water can be turned on from time to time is amply sufficient to remove any scum which may accumulate on the surface of the pond. Of course an overflow, connected with a drain or silt-pit, must be provided. This should be placed in position before the laying of the foundation is begun. A narrow drain pipe will be sufficient for all requirements.

The bog garden consists merely of very wet ground in which a host of interesting plants flourish. It must, of course, be beside a pond or along a stream. In spring the brown woolly fronds of cinnamon fern will first show themselves, uncoiling as they rise. The swamp rose-mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos) will give a wealth of great white or pink flowers in mid-summer. In autumn blue mists of asters or a yellow glow of coreopsis and dazzling shafts of cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) will brighten the spot.

HANDLING CUT FLOWERS

Water-lilies do well as cut flowers if they are properly handled. The flower selected for cutting must be newly opened or just about to open. In nature the life of each bloom is limited to three or four days, but in the house it may keep a day or two longer. Occasionally death seems to overtake the motor centres while the flower is still open, and then it remains several days before the petals wither.

The new flower may be recognised by these features: (I) The stamens spread apart at the centre of the flower, leaving a free passage down to the stigma; (2) the anthers are plump and round and have not yet begun to shed any pollen; (3) the basin-like stigma is filled with liquid excreted from its surface.

The flower stalk is scarcely able to supply the petals with water; the cut flower should be floated in a dish or, if placed in a vase, the vase should be full to the brim with water, the flower projecting as little as possible. When carried from the sunny garden into the house the flower is likely to close, on account of the diminished light, but it will open again next morning as well as if it were outside.