Growing Buckbean

Growing Menyanthes trifoliata or Buckbean or even Bogbean (both names for the same plant) is easy water gardening.

How To Grow

Plant in the full sunshine.

You'll find it will do well almost anywhere from USDA zone 3 to warmer areas.

Grow it as a shallow water plant - barely covering the roots with water. In nature it thrives in acidic bogs or shallow pools.
bogbean buckbean
If possible grow it in straight peat moss or acidic soils where it will thrive and colonize the entire bank rather quickly.

If happy, this plant can be a tad invasive forming clumps of 3-feet (1 m) across. You might even find adventurous rhizomes heading out into the pond and floating on the surface. It won't live out in the pond however.

Flowering and Propagation

It flowers mid-summer with a white/pinkish flower spike on a stalk 12-16 inches over top of the leaves. An interesting flower, it adds a dainty look to the mid summer pond design.

Dig and divide in the early spring to share rhizome clumps with neighbors or expand your own planting. This is an easy plant to divide.

This is an easy plant to grow; the secret to success is in the acidic soil.

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