Forcing Iris and Lilies to Get Early Start on Spring

by Cindy
(WI)

I have sucessfully wintered over water lilies and iris for several years. But, when I put them out into the pond in the spring, it seems to take a long time to produce much foliage, even though I fertilize. Would it be OK to start them now in buckets of water indoors (I have a small greenhouse) and then put them out with hopefully more foliage? Probably won't be able to open pond until end of April. Live in Northern WI and have a 130 gallon small preformed pond.

Doug says you "can" do this kind of forcing but understand several things:

1) The plants you force in the house will be tender and less resistant to sudden cold snaps than those outdoors. There's a reason the outdoor ones take time (it's too cold) to start and grow. You "can" beat the season but you risk your plant growth with sudden changes. The change may not kill the plant - just burn off the foliage and force it to restart.

2) Your indoor conditions have to mimic full sunlight. Anything less and any foliage will be weak. And will stress-out as soon as you give it outdoor conditions. Too weak and it will either die of fall over in adverse weather - forcing your plant to develop new shoots again.

So the answer to your question is that yes, you can do this kind of thing. Greenhouses do it all the time but you take the chance of producing an inferior plant that won't survive *if* the weather turns.

How much do you really want those blooms? :-)