Add Interest To Your Water Garden With Floating Plants

Executive Summary by: Lee Dobbins

While most floating water garden plants are tropical there are a few that you can use in northern climates.

plants for water gardens

Three of the more popular floating plants are discussed below and include Parrots Feather, Water Lettuce, and Floating Hyacinth.

• Parrots Feather

Parrot feather has stems that can grow up to 60 inches long and can provide a great spawning area for your pond fish.

• Water Lettuce

This plant, as the name implies, resembles a big head of lettuce floating on top your pond. Water letters prefers warmer climates and can work in zones 9-11.

• Floating Hyacinth

Floating hyacinth reduces purple flowers on 6 inch stems and can be a colorful addition to the floating plants in your water garden. Good for zones 9 to 11, Floating Hyacinth and will also help to clarify your water.

Water garden plants added to your pond will not only help it look better but they can also help the water quality be healthier and may reduce your maintenance. This is because the water garden plants consume the same nutrients from the water that algae needs to grow.

How To Choose Water Garden Plants

Executive Summary by: Brett Fogle

The water garden bug has bitten. Now it’s time for the fun part – picking out your water garden plants!

Plant varieties within these four categories are what you need to eyeball: deep-water, marginals, oxygenators, and floaters.

Plant-dunking should be done during the growing season. When picking your water garden plants, you’ll no doubt be wowed by water lilies of the tropical persuasion. Hardy water lilies, while not the showboaters that tropicals are hardier.

Both hardy and tropical water lilies are real sun worshippers. Everybody and their brother with a water garden wants a lotus plant. Big, bold, and beautiful, with water-depth needs of 2-3 feet, these shouters are really better off in big ponds that get plenty of sun.

Marginals (sometimes called “bog” plants by those less high-falutin’) are grass-like plants that strut their stuff in shallow areas no deeper than 6″ that border the water garden. Some water garden plants are there but not seen, working stoically under water and without fanfare to fight algae, oxygenate the water, and provide food for fish. Like hardy water lilies, they, too, will warrior it through the winter.

Toss them in the water and they’re “planted.” A water garden isn’t a garden without plants.

You may want to check out my other guide on water ponds and garden seeds