Water hyacinths die in the winter in nj because its 2 cold there . Why do you think there selling on e bay for 30 cents for a whole box its because there dead as soon as the cold comes .Thats why FL and all the warm states were they can live in the wild you cant have them by law because they can live all year round and take over a body of water in no time at all.
Theres no way of keeping them alive in doors with out high power MH lights .
A good site to go to is the pond fourm at GW . Last time I was there there were alot of ppl talking about hyacinths.
Here in AZ I grow them in my 7 by 7 foot pond . In the winter we get down to 28f on the coldest nights and I lose around 99% of them . Just one plant I had this spring from last summer and it took over my pond in no time at all .
GEORGE-CP- If you have them and your in fl make sure you keep them away from a large body of water its called a Noxious weed some lady got a 20,000 fine for owning them in fl .There illegal there. Don't tell anyone else you have them.
Each individual plant of a prohibited species constitutes a separate violation. The law applies to everyone: aquatic plant producers and distributors, garden centers, pond supply stores, pet stores, and individual pondkeepers. So if Joe Ponder is caught with 10 water hyacinth in his backyard pond, that would be 10 separate violations, with potential fines totalling $20,000.
Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is one of the worst weeds in the world--aquatic or terrestrial. Until only a few years ago, this floating plant was a major problem in Florida (as it still is in many places throughout the world) covering as many as 125,000 acres of water: boat traffic on several rivers was halted; hundreds of lakes and ponds were covered from shore to shore with up to 200 tons of hyacinths per acre!
Heres a site I found .
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/46.html