1. Aquatic plants live in natural settings. A natural ecosystem in a constructed pond makes the plants feel at home. This means no chemicals!! If it kills algae it will kill your plants.
2. Get rid of the pots! If you have rocks and gravel in your pond, there is no reason to use pots for any plants except for tropical plants or Lotus. Water lilies should be planted in pockets so you don’t have to stare at an ugly pot. Marginal plants will grow better if their roots are not constrained by pots. This frees the roots to spread out and consume more nutrients from the water adding to the filtration in the pond.
3. Don’t chop down all the plant debris at the end of the growing season-leaving them adds interest to your winter landscape and helps the dormant plants survive the winter. In the spring, when new growth begins to sprout, just cut back the old growth.
4. You don’t have to feed your marginal plants. If they are not in pots they will pull all the food they need straight from the water.
5. Are your lilies slowly fading? Less blooms? Adding fertilizer tabs straight to the soil around the lily will perk them up and give you more flowers to enjoy.
6. If the fertilizer tabs didn’t work, or you couldn’t get them into the soil, then it’s time to divide the lily. If the lily is in a planting pocket, remove the tangled mass of tubers and carefully tear or cut them apart, saving the best growing tips for replanting. You will have a lot of new plants that you can give to your friends. Add some new soil to the lily plant pocket and pick one or two good looking pieces of the tuber for re-planting.
7. To grow robust tropical water lilies, be sure to feed them right near their crown on a regular basis! Wow, they are beautiful!
8. Lotus’ do best when they have at least six hours of sun per day. If they don’t, the plants may not make it through the winter.
9. Grow lotus’ in a large shallow container-otherwise they will take over your pond, which is not a bad thing-just be sure that is the only plant you like!
10. Relax! Enjoy your pond. Water plants will be the easiest things you have ever grown!
The author is president, Aquascape Designs, Batavia, Ill.
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