Plant could be too small to support flowers. What is your water temperature? How deep is the water that it is in? What's the weather been like? Is the plant getting full sun? Tough to say without more information.

I don't know the water temp but it is pretty warm. The water is about 6 inches over the crown of the plant and it was blooming when I bought it. I removed the spent bloom and the new one came out of the water and looked normal then before it opened the tip started getting black. It been about 95 degrees outside and its in full sun. My water lotus in the same area has a huge bud just starting to open.

Did it come in a pot, or did you pot it yourself? It might be needing all its energy to make roots. Is it a hardy or a tropical? I bought 2 bare root tropicals and planted them. One blossomed right away, the other not, but they've appeared to make a few ones that rotted.

It came already potted. I am going to repot it after I come back from a mini vacation this weekend and give it some fertilizer. If the bloom is going to open I won't get to see it anyway, boohoo. I peeled off the outer layer of slimy petals and its a pretty yellow bud but instead of standing above the water like it was, its curling back down under the water. The big one in the front pond does the same thing so I thought it wasn't getting enough sun but this one is in full sun so now I don't know.

Only six inches under the water's surface isn't deep enough for hardy waterlilies and most tropicals want to be a bit deeper too.

Kristy,
Was this bud on the plant when you bought it? If so, it may have just dried out from being transported. Future buds will likely be fine. The best fertilizer I have found is the big citrus tree stakes, chopped in pieces and just pushed under the tuber. I have several lilies that are only 6-8 inches below the surface that bloom just fine.

Pam

If you just bought it recently and put it in your pond it probably shocked the plant a bit and the plant sacrificed the bud in order to support the rest of the plant.
Six inches of water over the crown is also not really enough, it could stand to be deeper.:)

I put it as deep as it was in the above ground pond that I bought it from and it did have the bud when I bought it. I am going to repot it and fertilize it tonight and I can put it deeper if need be.

I hope you had a nice mini-vacation!
Sometimes people put lilies closer to the surface in the early spring, so they get more sun and warm up quicker, but then they need to go deeper for the summer...........unless its a tropical, then forget everything I just said. :)

Lol, I did have a nice mini vacation. I am sure its a hardy one since the place I got it doesn't have much of a selection and they just leave everything in the little above ground raised ponds they have. It was blooming when I got it along with a pond full of a bunch of others the same kind of lillies. I am not having good luck with lillies but my lotus is doing great.