Nymphoides peltata
Fringed water lily
Common names: Yellow floating heart
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Pot size
- from 50 l
- Lifespan
- Perennial
- Flowering
- Jun–Sep
- Hardiness
- Hardy
- Origin
- Native to Germany
Photo: TeunSpaans at Dutch Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
Description
The fringed water lily (Nymphoides peltata) is a native floating-leaf plant for garden ponds, with rounded leaves resembling small water lilies. From June to September it displays bright yellow, fringed flowers that sit just above the water surface, attracting wild bees and hoverflies. It grows in shallower water than the common water lily, usually up to 60 cm deep, making it well suited for pond edges. The plant spreads rapidly via runners and requires a clear boundary in smaller ponds.
Care instructions
Plant the fringed water lily in a container filled with loamy pond soil to facilitate later containment. Place the container in a zone with 20 to 60 cm water depth and a full-sun to partially shaded position. Starting in the second year, regularly check the runners and trim excess shoots before they cover the entire pond. Remove faded stems and wilted leaves in autumn; the roots remain winter-hardy in the pond and will regrow in spring.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
FloweringJun–Sep
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
moist, nutrient-rich, loamy, clayey
The fringed water lily does not grow in a bed, but roots in the mud at the bottom of a pond or stream. A nutrient-rich, loamy-clayey layer of substrate at a water depth of 10 to 40 cm is ideal. Low-lime to neutral water suits it best; strongly calcareous water slows its growth somewhat.
Feeding
Medium feeder
Months
May–Jul
Set the rhizomes in nutrient-rich pond soil or loam, which is enough for the whole season. If you want to feed it, work a little mature compost or special slow-release fertiliser cones for pond plants into the substrate in late spring. You should not feed directly into open water, as that only encourages algae growth.
Overwintering
The fringed water lily is hardy in Central Europe and withdraws into the rhizome on the pond bed in autumn. As long as the planting baskets stand below the frost line, that is at least 40 cm deep, it survives even severe winters without trouble. You can cut off wilted leaves in autumn so that they do not rot in the water.
Propagation
Methods
- Division
- From seed
The easiest way is to divide the rhizome clumps in spring or early summer and set the pieces in their own planting baskets with loamy pond soil. Each piece needs at least one strong bud, and then it shoots again reliably. Propagation from seed is also possible, but it takes considerably longer to the first flowering and is rarely used in the home garden.
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