Water Garden Plants
The first thing
The first thing you want to understand about water gardening is that the plants form a complete ecology within the pond. If the ecology is right, the pond is healthy and the water is clear. It is only when the pond ecology is “off” that the water goes scudzy. This is not like a soil-based garden. In one of those, you can plant a single geranium in the middle of a vast expanse of ground and it will grow quite nicely. If you put a single water garden plant in the middle of a pond, you’ll have nothing but problems from that pond. You need a full range of plants.Oxygenating Plants
Water Hyacinths are easy to grow in full sun and a few go a long way in the pond. Here's what you need to know.
Water Lettuce will tolerate more shade than hyacinths.
Q&A: My water lettuce plants won't live - I have them in a fountain.
Fairy Moss or Azolla is a rampant spreader that will quickly blanket a small pond. Useful as a fast shade cover and easily netted out.
Duckweed is perfect fish food, easy to grow and great for the pond.
Salvinia is a fast spreading noxious weed we would do well to consider before putting into our ponds (particularly in warmer climates).
Water Snowflake or Nymphoides is a surface covering plant as well (think tiny water lily only spreading) that comes in "hardy" as well as "tropical" varieties.
Grass like rooted plants such as Vallisneria or Eel-Grass are planted directly on the pond bottom to form a mat of green leaves.
Water Lilies
Hardy water Lilies: While water lilies are not absolutely necessary to pond ecology, the leaves on these gorgeous pond plants cover the surface of the pond preventing excessive amounts of sunlight from entering the pond. Excessive sunlight can cause algae blooms that turn the water green. The bottom line is that you want them.
Tropical water lilies< are fantastic if you want something truly lovely in your garden.
Lotus
Lotus are very easy to grow.
Hardy Shallow Water Garden Plants
Shallow water garden plants are those that grow on the edges of the pond in shallow water providing places for the wildlife to live and flourish. These creatures (of all kinds) are the pond scavengers eating the refuse and dying foliage, scouring the pond bottom for decaying organic material as well as the beneficial insects such as dragonflies.
Arrowhead or Sagittaria latifolia has arrow shaped leaves and grows almost anywhere it is wet. Here are the details.
Bullrush or Typha is a classic shallow water plant. Here's how to grow it as well as use it as a cut flower. Both with warnings and remedies.
Buckbean or Menyanthes is an easy plant to grow if you give it acidic soils. Here are the rest of the details.
Pickerelweed has always been one of my favourite pond plants. Here's how to grow it.
Scouring Rush is an interesting but aggressive spreading plant that should always be grown in a container.
Lysichiton or Skunk Cabbage are one of the larger leaved plants for boggy areas. Here's the trick to get those monster leaves.
Water Celery or Oenanthe is easily grown (a bit invasive) and the variety'Flamingo' has multi-colored leaves.
Plants for Damp Soil
And while they perform a very small ecological role in the actual pond, these perennials will grow in damp soils and will help provide cover and shelter for the necessary wildlife in your pond. They also provide some gorgeous plants for pond landscaping. Water garden plants all fill their unique ecological niche and all work together to form that balanced ecology that we all want for our ponds. It is up to us as gardeners to learn how to balance the plants. Hint: the easiest and most important are the oxygenatorsQuestions and Answers
Folks, please use this form to ask any questions about water plants. Also please understand that I get hundreds of questions every week across my sites and while I do my best, I simply can't get to them all. If yours is one of these, please accept my apologies.
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