Planting water lilies in a pond with soil in the bottom

In a situation where you are starting off with an empty pool and you want to establish plants either on the bottom of the pond or in permanent containers on the bottom:

Even in the wildest set up I would prefer to see the plants starting off in some container just so that they will keep distinct from one another for as long as possible. This may be in the form of a brick or stone raised surround.

Here at Bodnant the lilies are grown in huge shallow concrete containers.)

The compost or loam on the bottom or in the containers needs to be at least 6inches deep and well consolidated and dampened down. All of the bottom dwelling plants can be planted directly into this. If containers are used, top-dress them with gravel.

The pond can be gradually filled, at first just covering the crowns of the lilies. Francis Perry in her book "Water Gardens" tells us to leave this for a week until the water warms up a little and the plants establish themselves, from then on add an inch a week until the pond is quite full. A slow but sure method! If one where to do this in the late spring, when you can almost see water plants grow, I am sure that you could switch to "fast forward" by adding perhaps an inch a day.

Establishing deepwater plants and lilies into soil bottomed ponds that are already full of water:

Another old-fashioned method of planting lilies is to wrap the tuber up in a hessian bag full of the relevant compost. The bag is loosely tied at the top around the sprouting eye of the lily. This is placed in the bottom of a soil-based pond. The theory is that as the lily grows and becomes established the hessian bag rots away allowing the adventitious roots of the lily the search an anchorage on the base of the pond. It usually works as long as there is something more on the base than well puddle clay.