Hardy Water Lilies vs. Tropical Water Lilies

By Jamie Boyle

What's better, hardy water lilies or tropical water lilies when adding pond plants to your water garden? Honestly, it all depends on you, what you like and overall where you live meaning your climate. The thing with hardy water lilies is that there hardy and they can be easily overwintered in your garden pond. They are low maintenance, simply fertilize your water lilies, divide your water lilies when needed and enjoy wonderful blooms all summer long. Hardy water lilies in my opinion is most popular due to the fact you don't need to do anything come winter time unlike the tropical water lilies.

Tropical water lilies on the other hand come in many different variety of colours and are usually fragrant as well. When choosing water lilies find out overall what you really want. You see if your a kind of person that wants things that are unique then tropical water lilies will be the water lily for you. Seeing the large beautiful water lily blooms will be sure to be a topic of conversation for any guests you may have over. The only unfortunate thing about tropical water lilies is that they cannot be overwintered in ponds in severe climates. In warmer climates they may be left in the pond but here in Canada where I live in order to overwinter them they need to be taken out of the pond and brought indoors. You see more maintenance is required depending on where you live and pond owners should think about this before buying either hardy water lilies or tropical water lilies for their pond.

So the question whether or not you should choose hardy water lilies or tropical water lilies really is up to you. If your looking for maintenance free water lilies then think hardy lilies, if not go with the tropical ones. Regardless what you decide, whatever water lilies you choose for your water garden will look great in your pond and offer shade and protection for your pond fish. A pond is not complete without adding water lilies, marginals and other pond plants.