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AQUATIC PLANT MAINTENANCE

When performing your springtime cleanup of your pond or water garden, it is important to remember to perform maintenance on your water plants too. It is very important that they get some TLC. Your hard work will pay off with beautiful, healthy plants all season long.

Water Garden & Pond Features

Various plants and features in your water garden or pond attract and help maintain wildlife. For example:

Floating plants: provides landing pads for insects
Trees and shrubs: attract beneficial insects, provide wildlife food and cover
Grasses: provide cover near water year round
Marginal and bog plants: provide food and nectar for a wide variety of animals
Duckweed : provides food for water fowl
Rock nooks and crannies: give amphibians cool spots in summer and hibernation spots in winter
Pebble beach: gentle slope lets animals approach water gradually
Submerged plants release small amounts of oxygen into the water, which support insect larvae.
Bog gardens are ideal for water loving birds and insects, providing puddles from which butterflies can sip.

HINT: In a pool where aquatic plants and fish are properly balanced, algae remain under control (providing some food and cover), the water takes on a clear greenish color, and you should be able to see your hand when you hold it about 6 inches under the water.

Some Varieties Of Water Plants

Attracts Wildlife	Deep Water Plants	Submerged Plants	Marginals	Floating Plants
Cardinal flower	Hardy Water Lilies	Canadian Pondweed	Parrot's Feather	Water Lettuce
Parrot's feather	Tropical Day-Blooming Water Lilies	Hornwort	Iris	Water Hyacinth
Swamp Milkweed	Tropical Night-Blooming Water Lilies	Curled Pondweed	Arrowhead	Duckweed
Water mint	Dwarf Water Lilies	Cabomba	Marsh Marigold	Fairy Moss
Water lily	Lotuses	Water Milfoil/Celery	Cattail & Frogbit	Salvinia

Carefully cut off spent flowers to promote blooming, prevent disease and to keep the water tidy. Skim out floaters that cover too much surface area of the pond. Established submerged plants may have to be thinned by raking out the overgrowth every few weeks. Or lift the pot and trim off some stems. Use your net to remove clippings and other debris every day or so to prevent them from decaying and fouling the water.

After your pond or water garden has been established, you need to watch for crowding or rampant growth of your plants. The signs of crowding or rampant growth are:

When the plant has reduced blooms and congested crowns in which older foliage crowds out young stems and leaves. Water lily tubers might overgrow the top of the pot or fill it so tightly they distort its shape. At this point, the plants need division.

To do this, remove plants from their pots and break the plant into several pieces. Repot each piece having a growing tip. Plants with runners or plantlets can usually be divided by breaking off the "baby" plants.

You don't need to use special aquatic containers for planting. Those black or dark green nursery pots are just fine.

Remove it from its original container
Rinse off the plant to wash away any insects
Choose the correct size container
Size is determined by the needs of the plant
A vigorous water lily requires a container that is about 16 inches across
Most marginals can survive in a 8 to 10 inch pot
Tall plants may need broader pots to keep the wind from tipping them over
Small containers should have a ballast - a brick in the bottom of the pot works well
Partially fill the pot with good quality potting soil
Don't use potting soils with peat or perlite because they can float out of the container
Avoid potting soil that contains fertilizer, which can pollute the water
Add some gravel on top of soil for weight and help blending into background at pond's bottom

Position plant in the pond at correct level, using bricks underneath if necessary.

NOTE: Tropical water lilies should be set in the center of the container, while hardy water lilies should be set at the edge of the pot. Make sure the plant is at the same level it was in its original container. Add additional plants if their is room in the container, and fill the pot with soil (leave about a half inch below the rim). Now is a good time to pinch off any damaged or yellow leaves.

As always, if you have any questions about pond maintenance, please feel free to e-mail us and we will promptly assist you.

Information:      Ortho Garden Ponds, 1999
                          L.W. Ramsey Co., 1994
                          Roxbury Farm & Garden Center
                          Fredericksburg, VA. 22401

Updated: 10/11/2002