"1. I found a foot long, 1.5-2.0" thick lily pad tuber today - either of a yellow or white common lake lily. I don't know anything about dividing tubers - should i cut it into 6 or 8 pieces; or, should i be observant of little pads comming up and the few distended tenril pale roots shooting out - so i can determine where i should cut?"
Each section that you cut should have a pad or two and some roots. The thick old tubers don't produce as well as the offshoots on smaller tubers. If you have just the old thick tuber, it's best not to cut it in too many pieces as this may kill it or get fungus to attack it. If you can let it grow a little before cutting, that will help.
"2. I noticed a couple varieties of light green colored plants that are in aboundance in woodland streams, such as those which are only 3" deep, 2-3' wide, and run quickly down woodland hills. I would think that these plants, of which perhaps marsh marigolds are included, completey freeze solid - roots and all, considering the roots are close to the soil surface and easily proped up - that in the winter, the stream, i would think, completely freezes. Does this mean that those plants, which you've probably seen in woodland streamlets in your area, freeze completely solid in winter and thaw alive?"
As long as there is moving water, streams don't completely freeze. Water moves under the ice. If the streams cease to flow, then they certainly can freeze. Ice will form in the most shallow areas and form an ice tunnel around the moving water in small streams. Larger streams tend to stay open on the top as well. I would suspect that some of the plants that you see do indeed pretty much freeze and survive that. In super severe winters, perhaps they do not do as well but the ones in the moving water are able to spread in the spring as they do better. This is assuming that we're talking about aquatic plants and not terrestrial plants that just seem to prefer wet areas. Bog plants and those that like swampy areas like skunk cabbage do freeze solid.
"3. Don't all lily tuber root systems grow horizontally? today, i read in a book that two types of classes - i forgot the names - have horizonally growing roots and must be avoided for smaller ponds cause they will quickly take over the pond...
i thought all lilies do this the same."
There are a few kinds of waterlily roots. I did a search and found this page which may help:
http://www.akca.org/library/lilie.htmMy chromatella yellow hardy waterlily is one of those pineapple Marliac tubers which is hardy to separate then my others. I don't know too much about waterlilies.
"4. Can you recommend a few lilies for my pond: hardy, take up about a span of 3 feet, yellow, white, and pink-red."
There are so many! I have Chromatella or is is Chromella or something which is yellow and my favorite, Albata which is white, Fabiola which is pink and gorgeous, and Comanche which is a changeable (mostly orangish). I can't seem to keep red hardy water lilies alive (have tried a few).
"a. Do you feel that it is true that: Lousianna Iris will out grow its competitors and, more then blue flag, will take over too much, just like yellow flag."
Yellow flag is a class of its own as far as how well it grows in my ponds. The Lousiana's are not that aggressive (at least the ones I've had).
"b. I heard that gamecock cannot tollerate more then say 1" of water over the crown - is this true?"
I just got my first one and put it in a week ago so cannot comment specifically on that cultivar as of yet.
"c. Are you familiar or owning of more then: Lousianna, Yellow Flag, and Blue Flag Iris?"
I have yellow flag, blue flag, purple flag (or probably Lousiana of some sort), Colorific, and now Black Gamecock. My red iris was the most delicate and finally died after about 7 years in my pond. I'm not altogether clear on which iris are "Lousiana" and which technically aren't.
"6. I have blue flag and now a few variagata albo - would you recommend other types that will grow in the pond, but not as invasive as yellow flag?"
See my iris page at
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/iris.htm for a list of some iris and ones I've had. It's a bit out of date though. Basically anything you pick will be less invasive than yellow flag.
7". In my zone [6], would you expect that the marginals I plant in my 16"wide x 12" deep soil filled trench with a little peat moss on top will survive my winters? I would think that, in nature, their roots do not go deeper then 12" - when i go to remove such things out of the ground as iris, i find it is no deeper then 8", at its deepest root reach - i think. I hope that this is sufficient. "
I think you've asked this before and all we can do is guess until you actually do it. I would suspect that most plants would survive but in any situation, some won't either because of chance or the particular setup that you had or the severity of the winter.