What's the difference between tropical and hardy water lilies?

Tropical lilies need warm water above 70°F, bloom with more saturated colors including true blue and purple, and typically don't survive winter outdoors. Hardy lilies survive cold water and come back on their own each spring, but their color range doesn't include true blue or purple.

Can tropical water lilies survive winter?

Not outdoors in most climates. They're usually grown as annuals and replaced each spring. If you want to save a specific variety, lift the tuber before the first hard frost and store it indoors in damp sand or peat until the water warms up again next season.

What does "bare root" mean for these lilies?

It means the plant ships as a dormant tuber without soil or a pot, rather than as an actively growing potted plant. It's the standard way aquatic plants are shipped, and it keeps the plant lightweight and less likely to be damaged in transit. It'll look inactive when it arrives, so give it a few weeks in warm water before judging its condition.

Why do I have to buy more than one of the same variety?

Most tropical lily varieties in this collection have a minimum order quantity, usually two or three per variety. That's tied to how the tubers are grown and shipped, not a store policy. If you only want a single plant, check individual listings for exceptions or consider the Grower's Choice assorted pack instead.

What's the difference between day-blooming and night-blooming tropical lilies?

Day bloomers open in the morning and close by late afternoon. Night bloomers open at dusk and stay open into the next morning. Pick based on when you're actually around to see the pond: day bloomers suit someone home during the day, night bloomers suit evening entertaining or a pond with landscape lighting.

How deep should I plant a tropical water lily?

Position the tuber so the crown sits with roughly 6 to 12 inches of water above it once the plant is established. Start shallower for a newly planted tuber and lower the container as the plant grows, rather than dropping it to full depth right away.

How much sun do tropical water lilies need?

At least six hours of direct sun a day. Tropicals are more sun-hungry than most other pond plants, and low bloom counts are usually a sun problem rather than a fertilizing or water quality problem.

When is it safe to plant tropical water lilies outdoors?

Wait until water temperature is reliably above 70°F, which usually means waiting past your last frost date and into settled warm weather. Planting into cold water won't necessarily kill the tuber, but it stalls growth and costs you weeks of bloom time.

Tropical Water Lilies

Tropical water lilies are the lilies you plant for the boldest color your pond will produce all season. Unlike hardy lilies, which come back on their own every spring, these are warm-season plants that need to be replanted, or overwintered indoors, each year, and in exchange they give you flower colors and shapes hardy varieties simply can't match: true blues, deep purples, and flowers held several inches above the water rather than sitting flat on the surface.

This collection carries bare root tropical lily varieties in both day-blooming and night-blooming types, across reds, pinks, blues, purples, and white, plus a couple of hardy-tropical hybrids for growers who want tropical color without babying the tuber through winter. Most varieties ship as bare root tubers with a minimum order quantity per variety, so read each listing before you check out. If you're not sure which colors or bloom times will work best for your pond, the guide below breaks down how to choose.

What Belongs in This Collection

This collection covers tropical water lily varieties sold as bare root plants, in both day-blooming and night-blooming types. You'll find single-color varieties in red, pink, blue, purple, and white, along with a few two-toned and hybrid options. Everything here needs warm water to perform, which is the main thing that separates tropical lilies from the hardy lilies carried elsewhere on the site.

A handful of varieties, like Tropic Star and Violicious, are tropical-hardy hybrids. These cross tropical bloom traits with a hardier root system, so they hold up to cooler water better than a straight tropical variety without needing full winter dormancy care. If you want tropical-looking flowers but don't want to deal with overwintering, one of these hybrids is worth a look before you commit to a true tropical.

There's also a Grower's Choice Day & Night Blooming Tropical Lilies pack for buyers who want a mix of color without picking individual varieties one at a time. It ships as a minimum order of six, which makes sense if you're stocking a larger pond or filling several containers at once.

Day-Blooming vs. Night-Blooming Varieties

Day Bloomers

Most of what's in this collection blooms during the day. Varieties like Queen of Siam, Teri Dunn, Dauben Blue, Key Largo, and Blue Star open in the morning and close by late afternoon. If you're around your pond mostly on weekends or in the evening after work, that's worth knowing before you buy, since a day bloomer closed up by five in the afternoon won't show off for you the way it would for someone home during the day.

Night Bloomers

Night bloomers are the smaller group here, but they cover a real need. Catherine Marie, Jennifer Rebecca, and Mrs Emily Grant Hutchings open at dusk and stay open into the next morning. They're the better pick if you entertain in the evening, have pond lighting installed, or just tend to enjoy your yard after dinner rather than during the day. Night bloomers also tend to run larger and more fragrant than day bloomers, which is a nice bonus if you're planting near a patio or seating area.

If you can't decide, that's exactly what the Grower's Choice pack is for. It's built around a mix of both bloom types so you get color at different times of day without guessing wrong on a single variety.

Choosing a Variety by Color

Color is usually the first filter buyers use, and this collection has real range: deep reds like Doris Holt and Bulls Eye, pinks like A. Siebert and Queen of Siam, blues like Dauben Blue and Wood's Blue Goddess, purples like Teri Dunn, Lindsey Woods, and Panama Pacific, and white with Marian Strawn. A few, like Star of Siam, are bicolor.

One thing worth knowing: tropical lily color often reads more saturated in person than in a photo, especially the blues and purples, since those tones don't occur naturally in hardy lilies at all. If a true blue or purple flower is the look you're going for, tropical is really the only category that gets you there.

Pairing Tropical Lilies With Other Pond Plants

Tropical lilies work best planted alongside plants that fill in around them rather than crowd them out. Hardy water lilies from the Hardy Water Lilies collection are already established and blooming earlier in the season, so they carry color while a newly planted tropical tuber is still settling in. Lotus adds height and big leaf texture at a different level than a lily pad ever will. Floating plants like water hyacinth or water lettuce, both in the Floating Water Plants collection, cover open water fast, which helps if a young tuber hasn't spread out yet and the surface still looks bare.

How Tropical Lilies Are Sold Here

Every variety in this collection ships bare root, meaning you're getting a dormant tuber rather than a potted, actively growing plant. That's standard for aquatic plant shipping and it keeps cost and shipping weight down, but it does mean the plant won't look like much the day it arrives. Give it a few weeks in warm water before you judge how it's doing.

Most varieties carry a minimum order quantity per variety, usually two or three, rather than being sold as single units. That's worth checking on the product page before you add to cart, especially if you're only trying to add one lily to a small pond. If you want just one plant and don't want to hit a minimum, the Grower's Choice pack is the more flexible route.

Growing Tropical Water Lilies

Water Temperature and Timing

Tropical lilies need warm water to grow, generally 70 degrees Fahrenheit or above, so they're not something to plant the moment the ground thaws. Wait until nighttime lows are reliably mild in your area before you put a tuber in the pond. Planting too early in cold water tends to stall the tuber rather than kill it outright, but it wastes weeks of the growing season.

Planting Depth and Sun

Plant the tuber in a container with heavy aquatic soil, crown facing up, at a depth where roughly 6 to 12 inches of water sits above it once established. Full sun matters more with tropicals than with almost anything else in a water garden. Six hours a day is the rough minimum for good bloom production, and less sun usually shows up as fewer flowers rather than a dead plant.

Feeding

Tropicals are hungrier feeders than hardy lilies. Plan on fertilizing with aquatic plant tabs every three to four weeks through the growing season, tapering off as water temperatures start to drop in fall.

End-of-Season Care

Tropical water lilies aren't winter hardy, so in most climates they're treated as annuals and replaced each spring. If you want to keep a specific variety going, the tuber can be lifted before the first hard frost and stored indoors in damp sand or peat at a cool, frost-free temperature, then replanted once the water warms back up the following season. It's more work than letting a hardy lily die back on its own, which is part of why buyers who want low-maintenance color year after year often lean toward the tropical-hardy hybrids instead.