Hi
I grow only one tropical in my 5x10 pool for that reason. .In summer it will completely cover the surface 3 deep.lol.Pads seem to last about one week until replaced if it didn't you'd be seeing some at your house by now lol.
You can certainly clip off the older leaves anytime.IMO thye look a lot better when not so crowded.
Are you getting a lot of flowers?? gary

Gary, thank you for your reply. I usually have 3 or 4 flowers, but again, I suspect I would get more if my pond wasn't so crowded with the pads. My pond is small, probably about 6' by 6'. I am going to cut back the pads as much as possible and also try to get some of the pots out (don't really want to go swimming in there!) Thanks again. Vicki

Some water lilies do have poor growing habits, spreading too fast, making too many lilypads.

Many a pond is destroyed when it is choked by unsuitable plants growing bare root that smother the entire pond then one way or another the liner ends up punctured

Brown dry leaves sounds like the lilypads are being scorched in the sun or fungus is spreading through the crowded leaves

I got some really brown lily leaves once and I think it was from getting burned from the fertilizer tab.
I have a 300 gallon stocktank and was only going to put one container of a water lily in there. I later decided to add 1 more, and they are sooooo crowded. I wonder why I see pics of some people's big ponds and they just have little areas of lilies? Maybe those are small varieties?

I prefer dwarf varieties for just that reason. I have one dwarf 'Souix' that covers 70% of my 5'x5' 300ga pond. Yesterday it had 5 blossoms! (wish I could have been home all day to enjoy them!) But every year I get impatient and think I need more, and end up relocating a 2nd lily out of that pond!

I have 2 dwarfs in a 4'x6' pond, and 2 medium and 1 dwarf in another stock tank (that ones crowded now too, but I just learned a neighbor put in a pond ---I love to give my extras to good homes!)

And then remember you have to split them every so often...

why dont you just trim off some of the lily pads.....I know I saw a post on here about 6-7 lily pads was all a water lily needs to bloom....most of mine have around 9-10

Thank you sdavis,catherinet,sheepco and chris for your responses. I went and cut the lily pads back as much as I could, especially the crisp brown ones. I think they will do much better now. They didn't really start to look bad until they became so crowded. When my yard man comes next week, I am going to see if he can reach down and pull out some of the pots so I won't continue to have such a problem. Vicki

Catherinet
i traded some of my lily Blue Goddess which completely filled my 5x10 pool to a lady in the same zone. with a 40 foot pool .It spread about the same size as mine. Was so surprised as I figured it would get gigantic. She has three and still has open water.
They usually list "spreads" on varieties and apparently that's the size they get regardless of water surface.
I have some african dwarfs that the leaves never surpass 4 inches but will "chain " spred by sprouting in another location.
Vicki Why don't you look up the "spread " info on the varieties you have ?? Would give you an idea which get larger. gary

Thanks Gary. I never new about the spread info.

Hi
I suppose every one knows about the Victoria adventure site?? Can't imagine anything that is not covered plus sources for a lot of stuff gary

Waterlilies can bloom happily with only 5-7 pads.

Always pick off pads that don't look good. Try to get the stem too.

There are huge differences in spreads between waterlilies. You can keep bigger ones in smaller ponds by removing extra pads.

Gary, I have no idea what kind of lilly pads I have. Each individual pad is about 4 to 5 inches across. The flowers are yellow. They are certainly hardy. Even after cutting them back, more and more are wanting to come back.

Buyorsell, thank you for your information. I know very little about ponds and pond plants so your knowledge is much appreciated.

Vicki

My tanks are too full also. The lilies grow so fast when the water warms up.

May 28th
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June 22nd
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Water lilies need divided ever year or so. If your lilies have been in the pond for 3 years already, they probably need devided. What started out as one lily per pot is probably several per pot now. You might need to pull the lilies and divide and repot them. I'd put the 3 with the most buds back into the pond and share the others or compost them.

mammasue- Those tanks are neat. How big around and deep are they?

The smaller tank is a little over 3' and 24" deep. It holds approx. 160 gallong. The largest tank is 8' across and 24" deep. Approximately 750 gallons.