How To Divide And Repot A Water Lily

Water Lily Division

Lilies need to be lifted out of their pots and split and fertilized every one to two years for them to thrive and flower well as they are very heavy feeders. Crowding causes the lily to lose its vigor, become smaller and bloom less. Dividing a water lily allows you to discard old roots and rhizomes that would otherwise decompose. Dividing and re-potting a water lily will give it renewed strength to thrive.

Take the entire water lily out of the pot and loosen to remove bulk of soil. Wash away remaining soil to find the growing tip and new eyes of the rhizome. Using a sharp knife cut away larger growing tips leaving about 4-5 inches on the rhizome. The new smaller eyes of the rhizome are harder to identify so you will need to look carefully to see the new tips coming through and cut them away so that they are around 2-3 inches. If the roots are very long on any rhizomes cut them back to around 4-5 inches. This will not do the plant any harm.

Potting A Water Lily

Using a pot at least 7” in diameter, line it with newspaper and fill the pot halfway with a heavy soil. Do not use potting mix as this is to light and will float to the surface. Lilies prefer a heavy mountain soil. Put one heaped tablespooon of slow release fertilizer for flowering plants and a dissolving water lily fertilizer tablet if you have one into centre of the pot and cover with a little mound of soil. Place rhizome on the mound in the centre of the pot. Put more soil around rhizome leaving just the very tip exposed with the soil about 3 inches from the top of the pot. Pat down soil firmly so that the rhizome doesn’t come out once potted and placed in the water. Put about an inch of washed sand on top followed by some washed river pebbles. Don’t worry if you have buried the rhizome if it is very small, as long as it is buried no more than an inch or so it will sprout to the surface. The sand and river pebbles act a filter, help weigh down the rhizome to stop it from popping out of the soil to float on the water surface and help prevent fish from digging around in the soil looking for choice new sprouts and making a muddy mess.

Gently place your potted water lily into the deepest section of your pond where it is going to receive at least five hours of sunshine a day to bloom prolifically and not under a fountain or waterfall where the splash will prevent it flowering.