It takes just 10 minutes. I have 7 tropical lilies in my pond all planted in 19 quart containers. Twice a month I place 4 pondtabbs (1 tab per 5 quarts of soil) on the pond ledge by each plant. Then I hop into the pond, picking up the tabs with my left hand (carefully keeping that hand dry) and fertilize each lily with my right (wet) hand. Pondtabbs are designed to dissolve with in 30-60 seconds after getting wet. This is good, an undissolved pondtabb is not fertilizing anything. Next I prune the older yellowing outside leaves and spent flowers. Spent flowers look just like buds, if you're not careful you might do what I once did. After an early morning prune (before the lily blossoms opened) I was surprised to see my compost heap was covered with blooming waterlilies! To be certain you don't accidentally prune buds and not spent flowers, simply squeeze the bud, if water squirts out then the flower has already bloomed. Waterlily blossoms open and close for 3-4 days before sinking below the surface to make seeds. Hardy lilies pull their spent flowers underwater by coiling the stems up like a telephone cord and tropical lilies bend their stems into a hook.
