Water Lilly

[Daniebaby]

I have just gotten another water lily as a gift from a friend. It's very small (only 3 small leaves). It's currently in quarantine in my 10 gallon with no fish. I would like to add it to my patio pond soon. How should I plant it? How long should I wait? Can I use gravel or do I NEED soil?

I do have another type of water lily that I purchased from LFS and I planted it in a pot with aquarium gravel, although I know that's not ideal. However, this little thing isn't well established and I'm not sure what hitchhikers are on it so I'm quarantining then hoping to add it to the pond.

 

[TamiR]

I planted mine in microbe lift aquatic planting medium. You need to use a long pot and the rhizome gets planted to one side with only about an inch of medium covering the crown. I lined the pot with burlap first so the medium didnt fall out and then added lava rock to the top to secure it (pea gravel would work better, I just happened to have the lava rock on hand.)