Q: I have a new pond and I planted a hardy waterlily. It sends up flower buds for a few days. They never open and then they die. What do you think is going wrong and how do I fix it?
A: I think that if you work from home for a few days, you may find the flowers are opening up during the day. It sounds like you have accomplished the tasks of fertilizing, giving them enough full sun and having warm water that give other people problems getting their waterlilies to bloom.
Hardy waterlilies only open during the middle of the day. Each blossom opens mid-morning and closes in the late afternoon. If you work during the day and don’t get home early enough, you will miss the flowers. You get to see them on the weekends. Each individual flower will only last a few days. After the flower stalk bends over and the flower goes under the water, it will begin producing seeds. You don’t want seeds; you want more flowers, so cut off the flowers as they begin folding over to go underwater….