West Coast Morning Lilies

 

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The 4 lilies planted earlier this week, on the west side of the pond.  Shot in the morning … so flowers still closed.  Shhhh …

New growth’s evident.  Means they’ve happily adapted to their new pond.  Yahoo – I’d been looking for this.

The two ducks, plastic, came with the lilies.  They drifted together during the night.  Hmmm.

Full Size Water Lilies from Trickers

Added 5 full size water lilies from Trickers, yesterday.  Kathy n Steve had given us an Xmas gift cert for Trickers, which Jerie and I took to Trickers yesterday – and – they dug out 5 water lilies from an outdoor pond, put em in a big bag, handed them to me.

Once home, I grabbed my waders and the big bag of 5 water lilies, marched down the hill, put on my waders, and spent 30 min or so coaxing them into the pond bottom.  First time I’ve ever planted anything in a pond (up to now, I’ve just been dropping bulbs into the water).  This morning, they were still planted in the bottom.  Success – years of planting aquarium plants paid off.

These Trickers lilies were full grown, with pads and/or pre-flowering bulbs attached to 12″ t0 24″ stalks attached to a tuber.   Cept that one was pretty much all roots, no tuber.  Some tubers were horizontal.  One was vertical.

Apparently a big plant is divided up by cutting the tuber into sections, with each tuber big enough to host several water lily stalks and pads.  Typically 3 to 6″ tubers.  About 1 to 1.5″ thick.

Whereas the Lowes water lilies have no stalks or pads, and are packed inside a slightly weighted package held loosely together with 1″ light black plastic mesh.  About fist size – my fist.  Throw em in, they sink down, right side up, to the pond bottom.  And that’s it.  After a few weeks, they start showing small pads.

The Lowes lilies are no more than 3″ across now, and out of the 22 I planted a month or so ago, only 9 have shown to date.  So, the Trickers water lilies give the pond an immediate boost – in beauty and functionality (lilies, like all plants, serve to purify the water).

Finally Fishes

A beautiful day.  With fish …

Saw fish for sure, for the first time this year … today.  On three occasions so far.  The first time, a school of about 15.  The second time, at least 25.  These were 3-4″ fish in size.  Got to be young Blue Gills.  Both times, in the South West area of the pond.

Pretty much the same for the third time too, which I captured above.

The STUFF on the waters surface, is pollen, basically.  From countless sources.  Plus some eggs, maybe.  The bugs love the STUFF.  And the fishies do so love those buggies.  They were bug hunting as I photographed them.  And various birds dipped occasionally, finding something at the ponds surface to their liking.  Oh yeah – water boatmen, skimming the surface.  Big tads hovering motionless.  And … dragonflies.

Hummingbird Feeding

Hummers n Lilies

Saw our first humming bird feeding today – after raising our feeder a few more feet.

Newly raised feeding station
Newly raised feeding station

Seems that the hummingbirds didn’t like the feeder at the same height as the last 4 springs, when we only had one cat on the deck.  Guessing it’s because this spring we have several deck cats.  And the hummingbirds, although comfortable at the old feeder with just one deck cat (they always know where one cat is), they didn’t like having several cats to contend with.  So today, I raised the feeder several feet – and within minutes, we started getting humming birds again.  Wow.  Pretty neat too.  Hummers aren’t dumb – one cat and they’ll feed from a low feeder – two or more cats – and that feeder better be out of reach of kitty, before hummy will deign to dine.  Arhrhrhrh.

And the lilies are growing harder, in this warm sunny spring weather the last few days.

Pond - serene, yes?
Pond – Serenity+
Two lily pads
Two lily pads
Dock n two lily pads
Dock n two lily pads

After raising the feeder.  Saw one hummingbird – but no camera.  Got camera.   Waited 10 mins for next humming bird, but missed it while playing with the focus – 10 min is a long time to sit still in a chair.  Then I caught this one feeding 2 min later.

Hummingbird Feeding
Hummingbird Feeding

Counting Pads

Still a limited number of water lily pads visible.  Maybe 8 on the surface, and as many below.  I think by this time next week, there will be from 30-50 pads on the surface, from 10 or so water lilies.  Need some good sunny days.

The plastic hose reel collapsed.  Bought an expensive metal reel.  Works nicely.  The plastic reel never did work well – always a struggle.  That’s life on the Ridge.  I guess.

Iron Fencing

Iron Fencing

Added some iron fencing.  Middle of the hillside.  Lovely.

And … planted 4 more water lilies from Lowes. Two on the left of the dock, and two on the right – about 8′ out.  There are about 6 lily pads on the surface, from 4 plants.  Including below the surface, there are about 7 plants showing.

First lily pad

First Sightings – Hummingbirds and Water Lilies

pond life
pond life
deck life
deck life
Hummingbird's point of view ...
Hummingbird’s point of view …

Corey spotted a Ruby Throated hummingbird a couple days ago.  I saw my first this morning, while Jerie was feeding the outdoor cats.  The hummer hovered about the feeder, warily watching the cats, one of which was quite curious – and the hummer decided not today.

Later today, I’ll get something to raise that feeder a few more feet from the deck railing.

And yesterday, we saw our first water lily pads.  Took the pic today.  Don’t know if it’s a survivor from last year, or from the ones I planted a few weeks ago.  Two plants pads are still under the water’s surface – should poke up late today.

First Water Lily Visible

First Time This Year – One water lily leaf is visible on the surface.  Two from other plants are visible below the surface.  Tomorrow, should be 3 plants with visible leaves.

No sign of any live muskrats.

The brown coloring in the water showed up again.  Like last spring.

Very wet behind the pond.  It leaks, you know.  From the muskrats.  My my.