Overwintering plants indoors

[Karen03]

Hello. I am going to overwinter some pond plants indoors for the first time. One submerged oxygenator, one water lily (in a basket), 4-5 marginals. I have a 40 gallon aquarium dedicated for them. Does anyone have any advice on setup? Here's my tentative plan:

Topography: I need shallow area for marginals and deeper area for submerged. I'm thinking of making a pile of rocks at one end of the aquarium for the marginals. Filling with water to about half full.
Substrate: None given that most plants will be about 8" from the bottom of the aquarium. Small rocks to anchor the plants.
Lighting: I plan to provide lighting. A broad spectrum LED.
Filtration: ?? Do I need filtration? If I do, I imagine a canister filter with the outflow down low at water level. I don't have a canister filter available for that. The only filter I have is a hang-on-back.

Thanks in advance!
Karen

[bergenm]

What type of marginals do you have?

Is the water lily hardy or tropical?

Is your pond going to be emptied over winter, if not how deep is it?

[Karen03]

This is a small pond. 3 feet diameter, 18" deep at its deepest spot. The water stays in it through the winter.

Last year the hardy lily and most of the hardy marginals did not survive the winter. When I replaced plants in the spring, I focused on tender marginals with the plan to overwinter them inside. I kept the replacement lily in its pot, also with the intention of overwintering inside. The lily is hardy, but so was last year's. I knew trying to overwinter the lily was risky in such shallow water. I'm going to be more cautious now, especially given the $$ of lilies.

[bergenm]

I think hardy water lilies need to go dormant over the winter, I have heard of people just keeping them in a bucket of water in a cold area (no light).

Tropical water lilies can be wintered in a tank.

https://www.gardeners.com/how-to/overwintering-hardy-water-lilies/5596.html

Depending on the type of tender marginal, I have kept them as houseplants or kept them in a trough of water under a shop light with grow bulbs (papyrus, bell flower, primrose, monkey flower). If they have a bulb, corm or tuber, I strip the plant down to the bulb and store in a box with peat moss (elephant ear, calla, canna, rain lily).

For hardy marginals, I drain the pond down eight inches (to drain the water lines) so most of my marginals are sitting out of the water during the winter. I think I have only lost one plant over 10 years doing it this way. I have some irises that don't like their roots wet over the winter so I just stick the pots in my vegetable garden over the winter.

[Karen03]

Thank you Michael! Very helpful!