When will my water lilies and other pond plants start to grow?

It's spring all the trees are blooming, tulips and daffodils have popped, and your pond or waterfall is running but your aquatic plants haven't started to grow or maybe just started to come to life.  You may be asking yourself, are my water lilies and other pond plants going to come back to life or do I need to replace them.  Ok, you assume they're not dead, but when will I see signs of life.  When are my beautiful water lilies and other pond and aquatic plants going to start to grow? 

So when is it going to happen? 

Like many things pond and waterfall related, a lot of what happens in a pond is temperature related.  Feeding your fish, good bacteria growth, suspended algae growth, fish spawning, and yes you guessed it the time your aquatic plants start to grow revolves around water temperature.   

​Many of the aquatic plants hardy to New Jersey will begin their growing and coming back to life when the water temperatures are between 55F and 60F.   This is the same temperature where we begin feeding fish and your good bacteria will begin to grow.  When the water temperature hits this magic number, you should begin to see your water lilies pop and all your other aquatic plants spring to life. 

The one exception are Lotus, while harder to New Jersey, the Lotus does like warmer water.  We will typically bring the Lotus plant closer to the surface to help "heat" up the pot and get the tubers warmer fast to push the growth of these beautiful plants.  

My aquatic plants are growing, what should I do? 

Your water temperature has been in the growing range of 55F or warmer for a few weeks, and you see nothing!  At this point it's time to check the plant.  As it turns out, it may have not made it through the winter and is probably just  rotting.  Pull the plant pot from the pond and check the plant.  Water Lily tubers and many other plants will just be mushy.  If you can squeeze part of the tuber or roots and they are just mush, it's time for a new plant.  

Related Links:

• Will tree pollen and tree blossoms affect my pond and waterfall?
• When can I start feeding my pond fish and koi this spring?
• How much does a fish pond cleaning cost? 
  

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