Pond plants

Create an oasis in your garden or on your patio

There's nothing like the sound of water to add a feeling of tranquility to your outdoor spaces. Even the smallest of spaces is enough to accommodate a small container with miniature water plants like Nymphaea water lilies.

Water Gardening in General

Waterside plants:Plant these in humus enriched Soil in spacious planting holes. Mix the enriched Soil with sand or fine grit to allow the water to drain well (they like moist but not wet feet. Position should always be sunny to semi Shade. Perennial Anemone Horine Jorbert will tolerate Shade . Fertilise with some organic fertiliser after planting and in June some 12+10+18 fertiliser compound.

Shallow plants:Plant these in Baskets in a mixture of 2/4 compost – ¼ sand and ¼ of clay or a standard ready made compost especially for the pond. Take care that the plants just peep above the surface of the Soil. Place a layer of fine white gravel or grit on top of the Soil after planting to ensure that the Basket will not float away. In general sunny to semi shady position. Divide the water Iris every three years by cutting up the roots and replant the most vigorous looking young ones.

Intermediate depth plants:Plant these in Baskets in a mixture of 2/4 compost – ¼ sand and ¼ of clay or a standard ready made pond compost. Take care that the plants just peep above the surface of the Soil. Place a layer of fine white gravel or grit on top of the Soil after planting to ensure that the Basket wont float away. Plant the Pickerel Rush more to the side of the pond and the Dwarf Water Lilies slightly away from the side. Place the Baskets into the water rather carefully so they won’t topple over or you have to start all over again . Place the Basket onto a flat spade and lower the spade into the pond holding it as flat as possible until the Basket slides of the spade onto its desired location.

Deep Section: Plant as the Intermediate plants but use larger Baskets for the deep water Nymphea. Take care of sufficient weight on top (gravel) to avoid the Basket becoming afloat.

How to keep algae at bay: Rather simple; do not overfeed the pond. Feed the fish only once a week, they should find food in a Healthy pond.
Tip: (let pond settle and plants to grow for 10 weeks before putting fish in there). If algae grows into green clouds you can administer a bottle of ordinary vinegar to the pond water. Test it first by spraying some vinegar onto a floating cloud of algae and you will see that it kills it. Be careful with Water lily foliage, they do not like to have vinegar onto their leaves as it will scorch them. It is a Cheap but effective method, you must test how much to apply for your pond. ( In general 1liter bottle works for 6000 liter pond water).

How to Plant Water Lilies

Water lily planting and care:
You need for planting waterLilies the following : water lily compost, waterplant Basket for water Lilies, gravel and old Newspapers

The place the Newspaper double layered in the Basket, covering bottom and sides of Basket. Fille the Basket for 2/3 with a mixture of pottingcompost and clay 1/3 clay 2/3 potting compost. Plant the water lily tuber in the compost such that the eye of the tuber is above the surface of the Basket, fill up with remaining compost mixture and cover with a double layer of Newspaper after you have watered the Basket with its compost well.

Put a couple of scoops of gravell on top of the Newspaper layer, take care that the sprout of the tuber peeps out and above of all of this. It will help if you make an handle of wire so you can submerge the basked easy and in a straight line, else it might tople and all the work has been waisted . Place the Basket at its final position in two stages, one: submerge it in shallow water, until you see foliage devellopping, than two: submerge it at its final position (deeper). This will help the young plant to grow to the top in stages.

Trim back roots when foliage of waterLilies is growing on top of each Other, take Basket out and trim back roots and tubers - replant nice Healthy looking tubers and give the rest away to a friend, do this early spring, when you see some underwater growth. Do it quickly and cover the plantparts whilst above the surface so they won't get scorced by the sun.

Fertiliser: place in each Basket some Slow release fertiliser tablets, they will feed the Basket all through the season, use a tablet per two litre content.

Other interesting information on Water Lilies: The dwarf types (Nymphea pygmea) belong to the so called Mariacea hybrids. Named after Mons. Joseph Latour-Marielac. This French Grouwer of water Lilies was at the end of the 19th. century the only one who knew how to cross waterLilies amongst each Other. He raised a number of important Varieties especially dwarf species. His Varieties are marked by red spots and stripes in the foliage. His Varieties are until today an important group. He took the art of crossing waterlies with him in his grave, as he trusted no one with his skills. It took Others a couple of decades to re invent the way of doing it. One of the most renown Mariacea hybrids is the var. Pygmea Helvola. It will grow even in buckets and pans with only 10-20 cm of water. This makes it possible to have a waterLily even on your Patio - decking or Balcony.

Water Lilies by Type

We have in our assortment various water Lilies : we have three different groups :
the large flowering Nymphaea,
the Small flowering Dwarf Nymphaea
the Tropical Nymphaea
The large flowering Nymphaea need to be grown in Ponds with a depht of 60 cm and over and an available surface of at least 2 x 2 mtr. The Small Dwarf Nymphaea can be grown in a pond of 1 x 1 mtr and a depth of 20 - 40 cm. The Triopical Nymphaea like Blue King like too be grown inour climate in warm sunny pond depth up to 50 cm and should taken out before winter and stored moist but free from frost

The dwarf nymphaea's are also very well suited to be planted in tubs for Patio - decking display.

Pond during winter

Make sure that your pond is cleared of leaves and Other debris regularly during autumn and winter as this will prevent disease from harming your fish. If you do have fish in your pond it’s a good idea to float a ball on it as this will prevent the whole pond from freezing and starving your fish of oxygen, it will also prevent the build up of gas which can kill or harm your fish.

Keep an eye on the water level in your pond as severe frost can do damage to pond liners and structures.

Do not walk on the ice or hammer it open with force, the vibration (shockwaves) can kill your fish.

It is a good time to order your Water Lilies for feb.-march delivery, especially the dwarf (pygmea types) are great as they do well in shallow water and even in buckets (min dept 15-20 cm).

Buy Pond plants online at Gardens4You

Buying plants online is safe and easy at Gardens4You. The online garden center for cheerful garden fun. Easy ordering of all plants and fast delivery. Easily pay and not good money back. Large range of premium stock in house to choose from.

With all our plants you get grow and bloom insurance, if you are not satisfied you get new or your money back. You can order without worry. We have the best quality. You can also fertilise your plants with extra delicious plant food. 

Other popular plants you may like are Bonsai trees and Flower Bulbs. Also view our garden Perennials and Shrubs.
We also have a huge variety of Houseplants for a wonderful green ambiance in your interior.