Yellow Waterlily

I have this container that my husband bought for me, a big beautiful bowl-like glazed container. I brought it home and sat it on our deck, only to be puzzled at how to use it other than just to look pretty. It has no holes. Later, I went back to the nursery and discovered many of these low, big bowl-like containers don’t have holes. But why? When I asked someone at the nursery what it could be used for, the answer was–well, you put other containers inside of it. This sounds cool, but after a year of sitting on my porch, my experience here is that when it rains it pours, and fills the bowl with water, and any plants would completely drown. And I would constantly have to tend to it.

So the solution? Let them drown! Put plants that like water in there. Enter this pretty water lily I found at the annual plant sale at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. It was sitting in a big tank along with other water, boggy plants. I have no idea how to run baby “pond”. So, here goes another one of my experiments.

Native to U.S.

from the Wildflower Center’s Native Plant Database: “An aquatic plant with bright yellow flowers and floating leaves.

The lovely flowers are open from midday to late afternoon. When the plants are crowded, the leaves may rise above the water. The plant was first discovered in Mexico, which accounts for the species name. It is also known as the Sun-lotus or Banana Water-lily.”