:unsure: Are we supposed to clip off the dead lily pads and flowers? or do we just let them decay in the water?

If we are supposed to clip them - how far down the stems should we cut?

In an ideal world, one would get special trimmers and cut the leaves and flowers back to near where they started once they start to rot. So, you would cut off all the stem the flower or leaf is on as it would just rot. In the case of flowers, when they sink. In the case of leaves, when they turn yellow and later brown or when they are severly damaged by pests or anything like fish messing with them. Rotting lily leaves are extra attractive to the ever-present aphids.

I usually don't bother with the flowers, mostly because I have so few. I just let them do their thing. They sink and usually fall off. If I find them then, I remove them. For the leaves, once a week when I get in, I hand pull off the dying leaves, snapping them off somewhere between the leaf and base. It's not ideal but I'm too lazy to submerge metal pruners methodically to remove dozens of leaves sometimes in the exact proper manner. The rotting leaves pull off pretty easily on tropical lilies. It's a different story for my big tropical. Those I sometimes have to cut off because they don't pull off.

Robyn, do you feed your lilys? Surprised you don't get many flowers.

Typically I follow the stems (both flowers and leaves) down to the base as far as I can reach and cut them there. Usually try for about an inch or two from the base. Either I use clippers or pinch them off using my fingernails.

I put in one PondTabb per gallon once a month in the summer in the lily and lotus pots. I also fertilize the marginals but not the ones that are so pot bound that I can't stuff the pills in there. The first few years of my pond, I got a lot of flowers but not many since then. I repot each lily every 2 years in 5 gallon pots for most of them but I have some in smaller pots too.

I don't have any fingernails! I work non-stop at home with animal wastes and pond rocks and dirt and gardening. At "work," I'm wearing gloves and using chemicals. If my nails grow even a little, they don't last and get full of dirt and unmentionables fast.

Last year I used annual plant stakes, plastic stakes full of holes filled with grains of fertilizer. Seemed to work pretty good.

This year I used the tabs, big lilys got 4 tabs, small got 2 or 3.

First time I've heard of feeding by the gallon, assuming gallon means size of plant container versus gallons in pond.

Of my 6 lily plants, all but one are in plant pockets built into my pond. The one in a container is in a one gallon container, the type that look like mesh. When I set it in the pond I stacked rocks around it to hide the container. Interesting enough it heavily favored one side of the container and is now mostly outside in my rocks. It's to the point I can't take the container out, so last weekend I snipped the top edge of the container off, portion showing above the rocks, to make it look more natural.

Maybe my lilies will eventually slow down on flower production too, but I hope not.

Yes, gallons in the pot! Terrestrial plant fertilizer has more nitrogen in it which can make algae growth worse if it gets into the water.

No terrestrial plant fertilizer here, I only use pond fertilizer for lilies, but that's good to know.

I was under the impression terrestrial fertilizer would harm/kill the fish. Is that not true? My lawn fertilizing service were concerned when I built my pond, and use lots of precaution to protect it.

I have a potted lily that is doing really well. My question is how deep can I set the pot? I would like to have the pads closer together but would have to put it on the bottom of my little 50 gal preformed pond to get that look. Right now it's sitting on top of some bricks on the bottom and the top of the pot is about 6" under water.

Terrestrial fertilizers come in all sorts. It depends on the actual chemical composition and concentration as to whether it would harm the fish. Certainly, if lots of lawn fertilizer got into a pond, the fish would die. If just a little got in, they might be ok but the algae would take off from the extra fertilizer.

The depth that you can set a lily depends on how big that variety gets, how clear the water is, and what condition the plant is in (lots of leaves, new with few leaves, etc.). Most lilies can eventually go down into water 1 or 2 feet or maybe more but they should start in more shallow water for good growth. Since your pond is only 50 gallons, you can certainly put the lily on the bottom once it is growing well. I keep most of my lilies about 6" under myself.

If you cull the dead leaves and flowers off your lilies you will have less detritus and problems keeping the water clear. The flower stems get mushy fast; you can just yank them off near the base of the plant (follow the corkscrew stem down with your hand). Leaves are tougher to remove, but after a while they come off pretty easily if you let them decay a bit. Robyn, if your lilies are only 6" into the water, no wonder the racoons get them. I keep mine all at 20-24" deep all year in zone 6/5. The only thing that bothers them is the koi (digging in exposed soil or crushed stone).