Water lilies are beautiful to look at in a pond. But they can proliferate more than we would like. They then not only appear lazy to bloom, but also take away the light from other plants and living beings. Removing them is not always easy, but possible.
How do you remove water lilies from a pond?
Water lilies can be removed by thinning the leaves with a rake, cutting in the plant basket or underwater with pond shears, removing the roots with a spade or by inserting grass fish and carp. In stubborn cases, the pond can be pumped out to better reach the roots.
Thinning out leaves with a rake
If water lily leaves are crowded together on the surface of the water or even cover each other, this carpet of leaves must be thinned out. You can use a rake to grab some of the leaves and remove them from the pond. If necessary, this process must be repeated regularly, because the water lilies will sprout again.
Take out with plant basket
If you have not placed the water lily in the bottom of the pond but in a plant basket, you can take it out of the water to cut it. Then you can either remove the water lily completely from the pond or cut back the leaves and roots to the desired size.
Cut with pond scissors
Water lilies planted deep in the pond can be cut back underwater using special pond scissors (€47.00 on Amazon) and then remove the cut parts of the plant from the water. How to reduce the amount of water lilies. If a dense network of roots has formed, it can sometimes be difficult to remove part of it.
If the pond is low, you can go in and use a spade to remove some or all of the water lily roots. Try to avoid damaging other aquatic plants.
Drain the pond and for better access
If all else fails, you can pump out the pond to get better access to the roots of the water lilies. This is of course a huge effort.
- Pick off the roots piece by piece with a spade
- remove completely from the pond
- otherwise new growth can occur from leftovers
Tip
Very old, thick roots may only be able to be removed from the pond with strong pulling force. Attach a pick to it and pull it out by car or other motor vehicle.
Use grass fish and carp
Grass fish and carp like to nibble on water lilies if they are kept short with food. Even thick roots are not safe from them. In larger ponds they could solve the water lily problem. If bitten parts of plants are floating in the pond, take them out as soon as possible.
