Garden Ponds & Plants
This section contains several articles that might be better filed under my water gardening website but I hope you enjoy them nevertheless. I think you'll find them of use in your pond maintenance. The other articles are self-explanatory with the links below.
There are a few simple things that you'll want to consider when planning your garden pond plant scheme:
The first is the plants themselves. There are some plants that will simply not appreciate having wet feet (lavenders for example) and will "melt" away when given this growing environment. The articles here list some of the better plants for wet or bog garden conditions.
The second is the soil you use. I have found that waterside plants do much better (for the most part) when the soil is heavy. For many years, I've used a clay soil to fill my water lily pots. Lilies grow much better in this clay than they do in regular garden soil or artificial soil composed of mostly peat moss. Garden centres however do not use this because it is too heavy on the pots and the backs of the labour.
The third is the amount of water available to bog garden plantings. I've sunk several large waterproof tubs next to some of my smaller ponds so I can water the planting tubs at the same time as I refill the water pond. Bog plants want constant moisture if they are to perform their best.
The last - at least on this page :-) - is the amount of sunlight the plants need and receive. It is important that you plan your plantings based on what amount of sunlight a plant requires. For example, while a hosta makes an excellent plant for garden ponds in the shade, in the full sunlight it will tend to lose its colour and "bleach" out. Similarly, Coreopsis rosea makes a good bog side plant in full sun but disappears quite quickly if you give it shady conditions.
Plant Lists for Damp
A list of perennial plants for the damp garden - some are going to surprise you.
Search here
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Got A Pond Perennial Question?
If you have a question feel free to ask it using this form.
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Have patience - there's one of me and lots of you and I simply can't get to all the questions. If it's an emergency, contact your nearest garden center.
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What Other Visitors Have Asked about Pond Perennials
Click below to see questions from other visitors to this page...
Looking for extremely thirsty plants - pond plants appropriate? We have spots in our backyard that get standing water for days following a heavy enough rain. Are there uber thirsty plants that will soak this up, and ...
transplanting spiderwort
Spiderwort roots seem fairly shallow - do I need to cut back when transplanting?
Doug says that given you're moving the plant when it's dormant, and ...
transplanting lotus I need to transplant my lotus and there seems to be a long runner coming from the tuber that has about 9 sprouts, each with it's own root. Can I cut this ...
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