I have spent the last 40 years growing water lilies. They are beautiful, easy to grow and tend, and give great pleasure to my pond, as well as my troughs.

You see, I love water features, koi and Japanese gardens, so these amazing plants are a perfect addition.

I get the rhizomes that I can plant myself. These can be inexpensive to very expensive depending on where you buy them, what kind you buy and exactly what you are looking for.

There are “baskets” you can buy to plant them in. They resemble a small clothes basket with holes in the sides, but I use plastic pots. You should invest in fertilizer tablets as they are heavy feeders.

So now to plant. The pot should have an inch or so level of pea gravel to plug the holes a bit. Then take wet heavy clay (Yes, clay. They love it) and fill the pot about half full. Set the rhizome with the eye up (similar to a potato) but lying horizontally. Cover to 2 inches below the pot top and tamp down. Insert your finger and slip in one tablet. Cover, and put 2 inches of pea gravel over all, making sure ALL clay is well covered.

Slowly immerse the pot into rain barrel, or other water (not city water). It will slowly bubble, but no clay should come out, except a dirty look to the water. The pea gravel holds down the clay, as well as the rhizome.

Now you are ready to place your water lily into your feature.

The feature (as I have explained in my pond’s presentation) can be a tub up to a large pond and anything in between. It can be a large bowl or container. Be creative.

Your waterlily needs six to eight hours of sun a day. This means whatever you have placed your lily in, it must be only 1 to 2 feet deep in the water. If in a pond or a koi pond, you will need steps or risers to place the pot at that optimum spot for best growth. I use crates, well seasoned cement blocks — anything that will be sturdy.

Two kinds of water lilies are hardy, living through winter as long as they do not freeze solid. The other tropical is Zone 10 and will not survive past summer.

Plant, pick off spent leaves and buds, and enjoy.

To learn more about these beautiful plants, go to http://go.osu.edu/waterlillies.

SOURCES: University of Florida, UFIFAS Extension, Friendly Landscaping Program; Texas A&M, Aquilife Extension, “Water lilies”; University of Missouri, Integrated Pest Management, “Water lilies: Easier Than You Think.”

Hughes is an Ohio State University Mahoning County Extension Master Gardener Volunteer.