I don't think there's anything wrong with your pond or plants either. I do agree that you should give your lillies some slow-release feed as mentioned above too. I use Osmocote 5-6 month slow release fertilizer.
As said above, red leaves on usually green-leaved plants is usually caused by the water being cold. All plants mostly use red and blue light from the sun. Plants don't really use green light, so they reflect it - that's why leaves look green. The green chlorophyll in the leaves turns light into sugars which enables growth.
If your lily had green leaves it will start to produce sugars in the sunlight and cause the plant to grow - BUT the water is too cold for growth - so your lily holds back the production of chlorophyll (which is what makes leaves green) until the water reaches an acceptable temperature for growth. Without the green chlorophyll the leaves will be redish/purple. As the leaves are red that means that your plant is reflecting the red light and not absorbing it - it's an internal defence mechanism to stop the plant from growing whilst it's not warm enough.
It's much the same way that in autumn the green leaves on tree turn red and gold as the weather becomes cooler and the tree stops producing the chlorophyll which is what makes them green. So when your lily is warm enough the leaves will start to turn green.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Do you feed your water lilies? They are hungry plants so need lifting, in their baskets, every spring and feeding, whether or not they need potting on to a bigger pot or are ready to be split and re-potted.
You can buy water lily fertilisers in tablet form that you just push into the compost in their pot.
Yep, have fed them both last year and this spring, with the tablet fertilisers.
Red leaves on water lilies are generally when the water is either cold or too shallow for the lily. It will go green as the water warms up for summer, but if it doesn’t it’s probably too shallow. How deep is it? most of them like quite deep water, at least a foot and a half or so form the top of the pot to the surface. Some varieties start purple and turn green as they mature, but as yours was already green I’m guessing that doesn’t apply
Both lilies are about 2' deep at the crown. But still purple! Oh well.
Oh I hadn’t noticed your location, I’d agree with both the above, some feed for the lily wouldn’t do any harm, and the marigold should be ok to grow in water but really at least needs its crown to be at surface level so that might just be purple as it’s too deep. You could just pop a brick under it if you don’t want to move it. I think the Lily (if its deep enough) probably just needs the water to warm up more. The purple leaves on that won’t do it any harm though
Have fed the lilies (and marigold), but I'll try lifting the marigold up a bit - cheers.
Mine are only just starting to green up a bit in the last week @Henatron, as it wasn't been warm enough until early June. Yours may not do that for a while yet, and they may not stay green for long if they do. This is where location is a big factor in what happens.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I live in Cornwall and my waterlilies have always had bronze/purple leaves. However, waterilies do not like moving water so hopefully your pump is not too near yours. My pond is 6ft in diameter but 4 ft deep, as I have fish in mine, so similar in size to yours. My lilies are miniatures with the pots on a shelf 12 inches deep, there are different sized waterlilies as some are designed to grow in deep lakes. They would not be happy in a shallow pond such as yours.
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I do agree that you should give your lillies some slow-release feed as mentioned above too.
I use Osmocote 5-6 month slow release fertilizer.
As said above, red leaves on usually green-leaved plants is usually caused by the water being cold.
All plants mostly use red and blue light from the sun.
Plants don't really use green light, so they reflect it - that's why leaves look green.
The green chlorophyll in the leaves turns light into sugars which enables growth.
If your lily had green leaves it will start to produce sugars in the sunlight and cause the plant to grow - BUT the water is too cold for growth - so your lily holds back the production of chlorophyll (which is what makes leaves green) until the water reaches an acceptable temperature for growth.
Without the green chlorophyll the leaves will be redish/purple.
As the leaves are red that means that your plant is reflecting the red light and not absorbing it - it's an internal defence mechanism to stop the plant from growing whilst it's not warm enough.
It's much the same way that in autumn the green leaves on tree turn red and gold as the weather becomes cooler and the tree stops producing the chlorophyll which is what makes them green.
So when your lily is warm enough the leaves will start to turn green.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
This is where location is a big factor in what happens.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
My pond is 6ft in diameter but 4 ft deep, as I have fish in mine, so similar in size to yours. My lilies are miniatures with the pots on a shelf 12 inches deep, there are different sized waterlilies as some are designed to grow in deep lakes. They would not be happy in a shallow pond such as yours.