After the pool is completed, many a water gardener's first action is to cover the floor with a 5- to 6-inch layer of earth. Having thus "simulated a natural environment," as he thinks he should, he then proceeds to plant-and to wonder thereafter Why his water-lilies don't do as well as the ones next door.



I can't imagine why so many gardeners persist in planting directly on the floor of a deep pool, or even in permanent built-in boxes, for there isn't a dealer I know who recommends it. It makes for muddy, awkward maintenance work, and furthermore does not get the lilies off to a good start.

In either case, it is necessary to plant the pool while it is empty and then to add the water. This is risky business, since water-lilies are shipped after growth has started and plants can easily be rendered in-active again by a severe shock. Water fed into a pool from a household tap is cold enough to give many species just such a stunting shock. Plants wi11 recover, but perhaps not until well along in the season. The alternative is to add enough water to cover the crowns of the plants for only an inch or so. In the course of a day the sun will warm the shallow water, and the probability of shock be greatly reduced. In a few days, a few more inches of water can be added, and so on until the pool is full. This procedure is usually safe enough but awfully slow and tedious.

Of course, if the pool is shallow, say only 12 to 15 inches deep, there is no choice but to plant directly in soil spread on the bottom. Pools this shallow can be filled with water immediately and then allowed to warm up for several days before they are planted.



Planting in one of the many kinds of movable receptacles has advantages which are obvious. Most important, it enables a gardener to clean out his pool as early as he likes in spring, fill it with fresh water, and let the water be warming under the sun until planting time. Movable boxes also make the work far easier. With a box, wooden pail, or small tub, you can work where you choose, and in a comfortable position, setting the receptacles into place in the pool when you are finished. Then you can rearrange them in the pool as often as you like without damage to the plants. You will also find it a simple matter to take up a particular lily, should you want to fertilize it or cut a rootstock from it for a friend.



You will have a cleaner, healthier pool if you prop up all planting receptacles a few inches from the floor. It is easy, with a clear floor, to take a rake now and then and pull out leaves and twigs that fall in and otherwise might accumulate on the floor and decompose, eventually fouling the water. Propped-up boxes also give goldfish a lot more freedom, and provide them with shade, which they need in hot summer weather. Cigarette lighters, rings, keys, and so on, do get dropped into pools from time to time, and you may have to get into your pool one day to retrieve something of the sort. You can kill a water-lily quite easily by stepping on the root, but you can wade among them safely enough if the roots are confined in containers. Planting receptacles are an absolute necessity for water-lilies in farm ponds to which livestock have access. Horses and cattle will walk around the boxes, buckets, or tubs of lilies, but will walk right on a plant if it is not protected.