I Want To Use Water Lilies In MY Koi Pond. Is This The Best Choice?

Dear Peter May, If you agree that water lilies are a good choice then how should I prevent my Koi from uprooting them? Are there special types of basket you can plant them in? James David, Dorset

Answer: Many Koi keepers have great success with lilies in Koi ponds although I would suspect that they are a minority. Many Koi ponds at some depths of over two metres are too deep for most lilies. Some vigorous white varieties like Nymphaea 'Colossea' and particularly N. 'Gladstoniana' would cope. One catalogue has N. 'Gladsoniana' as tolerant of 2.5 metres! But on average most of the bigger lilies are happiest at less than 1 metre.

Lilies of this size and power are gross feeders and are great for mopping up excess nitrates in the pool whilst providing useful pool cover. However marks against are that they provide too much cover and that any other living thing in the water upsets the refined control that some enthusiasts like to have on their pool water chemistry.

Really the main problems of Koi with lilies result from the inquisitiveness of the fish. Lilies hate being disturbed. Leaf stems and flower bud stalks are easily damaged by fish rubbing up against them. The fish also love to delve in the soil in the containers in which the lilies are planted, giving the pool water an unattractive beef consomme look.

• Successful Koi/lily pools generally evolve from small fry and good strong plants starting off together. Introducing big Koi into a new

• environment needs certain precautions:

• Mulch the lily baskets with 25mm or larger heavy pebbles to inhibit nosey intrusion.

• I have seen lilies successfully fenced off from koi by being surrounded by weighted circles of netlon plastic netting.

Make a separate area for planting lilies in. A barrier of block work or stone that allows the free flow of water, but is high enough within the water to keep out the fish. At the 2002 Hampton Court Flower Show, Anglo Aquarium Plant built a Koi pool in a garden designed by Amanda Broughton that had a submerged rim or wall just below the water surface. On the outside of the rim, lilies flourished in florid abandon, whilst inside Koi super subs cruised in ignorant bliss.