Plant Doctor Archive

Water Gardens — Water lily pots

Why are water lily pots always perforated?

This allows a free flow of water through the potting soil and root system and prevents this area from becoming anaerobic. Anyone who has knocked a water plant out of a hard pot will know what an anaerobic root system smells like (and it's not pleasant!).

Older baskets may require lining with hessian or coconut fibre to prevent the soil from seeping out, but all the modern water plant baskets require no lining.

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH.