The 10 best aquatic plants for an ornamental pond
What to plant in a pond in 2021? This question plagues many inexperienced gardeners and florists. We have gathered for you the 10 best ornamental plants: This is a list of easy to care for, ornamental and unpretentious plants for an ornamental pond. They are easy to plant, easy to propagate and just plain pretty.
A large but heavily overgrown pond looks smaller, and a small but intelligently organized planting on its banks looks bigger. When choosing the next water lily, do not forget that aquatic plants develop very quickly and the surface of the water can be completely covered with leaves in as little as two or three years.
1. Serosa or Nymphaea.
The undisputed market leader among aquatic plants. The number of varieties and species is counted in dozens. Varieties are divided into groups by size (from dwarf to large) and vary in coloration of flowers (white, yellow, purple, burgundy-red, orange) and leaves (from olive to purple).
What do water lilies need or peculiarities of growing nymphs?
The bottom of the reservoir is about 1.5 m. In order for a water lily to overwinter, your rhizome must be in a frost-free layer. If you have an artificial reservoir, place the plant for the winter in a room where the temperature does not fall below 0 ° C. The brightest place. A place protected from splashing water – away from fountains and waterfalls.
For planting in small ornamental ponds, including container type, choose dwarf limpets with a flower diameter of 5-15 cm, they are planted at a depth of 0.1-0.5 m, dwarf varieties can be purchased in stores. The name usually contains the prefix pygmaea.
Nymphaea blooming in a decorative pond
2. Ponteria
A beautifully flowering shore plant with fairly large, shiny leaves. Blossoms in blue (Pontederia spoonriver, blue, gray thunde varieties – blue flowers), pink (pink pons) or white (white pike) flowers. Blossoms from early summer to mid-autumn.
Growing Ponteridia
Ponteria prefers sunny place in shallow water, resistant to temperatures up t o-15 °C. Ponterideria is propagated by dividing the rhizome in spring or by seeds in late summer. It is recommended to remove containers for the winter, but many hobbyists leave them in the pond, where they overwinter beautifully.
Pontederia and nymphaea in the pond
3. euchornia or water hyacinth
A perennial tropical plant with floating and submerged leaves. Grows in open water from June through August. Cannot tolerate cold weather, so should not be placed in an outdoor pond before June. A sunny location is preferred. Put a few young eichornia rosettes in an aquarium in a warm, bright room for the winter.
Water hyacinth or eichhornia in a pond with nymphs
4. Pistia, water lettuce or water rose
This is a tropical aquatic plant with tufted light green leaves that can be planted in an outdoor decorative pond for the summer. The roots of the pistia hang down 0.3 m below the surface of the water. Under favorable conditions, the small flowers bloom in August-September. The optimum water temperature is +24 … +30 ° C. Over the winter, transferred to the aquarium with a water temperature not lower than +15 ° C and good lighting.
Pistia with nymphaea in the pond
5. elodea canadensis
The beautiful plant not only purifies the water, but also serves as a refuge for the many inhabitants of the pond. At the same time, it grows so fast that it can severely clog a pond.
6. Rhdestus floating.
Also characterized by a tendency to be overly active in reproduction. In small bodies of water, it is easier to limit its growth. It blooms in June – July. Candles of inflorescences, towering over the floating carpet of leaves, look very interesting.
7. Chilim floating or widespread
Chilim blooms with white flowers in late May and early June. Under favorable conditions, chilim may fill a large area of water.
Floating or scattered.
8. Common chilim.
Particularly good in a small body of water where there is an opportunity to view its flowers up close. The leaves of this plant are very similar to the small leaves of water lilies.
9. Stem yellow.
It differs from the water lily only in the flowers: in the mound of mounds they are rich yellow, smaller, and the petals are rounded. Mounded mounded lily grows strongly, so it should be planted only in large water bodies.
10. Sagittarius .
A plant with three types of leaves. Can grow at a depth of 5 m, but in this case it will not bloom. If you plant Sagittarius closer to the shore, it will give pink flowers. The plant also has a terry form with large white flowers.
Plants for the pond: drawing a decorative pond
Decorative garden ponds have been an element of ennobling recreation places since ancient times and remain popular today. Such ponds are usually decorated with coastal motifs and plants that imitate a natural body of water, and sometimes live fish are added to them. In this article, we will talk about plants that are planted near the pond or directly into the water.
Peculiarities of the design of ponds
Usually artificial ponds in private houses and on roofs have an area of u200bu200b0.5 m2 – 5-6 m2 with a depth of 30 cm to 1.5 m. What kind of technologies are not used! Ponds are made with water compaction and earthen bottom, using plastic containers and tubs. Mini-ponds are created in barrels, tubs and pits. It all depends on the size of the site and your imagination.
To give the pond naturalness, natural materials are used – the main types of stones: basalt, granite, gabrodiabase, sandstone, quartz, beautiful hooks, which are pressed with gravel of different colors and fractions, pebbles, shells.
And, of course, we use plants that give completeness and originality to our decorative pond.
Plants that can be planted around the pond belong to different types of plants: trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers.
Trees should be planted away from the edge of the pond so as not to contaminate it with leaves and needles or clog devices that can be installed to aerate the pond. In addition, leaves deposited on the bottom multiply and release toxic gases that can inhibit plants planted in the water, aquatic animals and fish.
Trees are placed individually or in small groups, various shrubs are planted in front of them, and herbaceous plants are placed already near the water. Do not plant a lot of identical plants along the shore, it will add monotony to your landscape. Do not overload the entire space with plants around the pond, keep a view of the water surface and the opposite bank.
Of particular importance in the design of a decorative pond are water features that are planted directly into the pond. They should occupy a small area at the water level and stand out on it with a clear spot. It is not recommended to plant more than 2-3 types of plants in one group.
Deciduous trees for coastal plantings
Trees that are planted near a body of water should be short, with a beautifully shaped trunk or branches and open leaves. For example, the following.
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Caragana Arborescens Walker – Height depends on grafting. Frost-resistant. Shoots are straight, graceful, branches hanging down.
The tree species listed are stunted, resistant to pruning and frost-resistant.
Conifers for pond plants
Conifers planted in ponds usually have a mournful crown.
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European larch ‘Cornic’, ‘Repens’, and ‘Bullet’ (Larix decidua) are all varieties on the trunk. With a spherical, drooping crown. The needles are soft and fall off in the winter.
If a site near a pond doesn’t allow for bulky plants, you can plant in buckets or terracotta essences. Look good in pots of kniphofia, mountain pines, pinching forms of juniper.
Shrubs for planting near water
Moving on to shrubs. Suitable for planting in the soil shrubs:
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Dwarfbirch (Betula Nana) – dwarf shrub, height 0.5-1 m, width up to 1 m. The crown is nest-like.
Herbs and flowers for coastal plantings
Herbs and flowers that are suitable for planting near a body of water have a great biodiversity. It is better to limit the planting locations of a particular plant species. This is particularly true of grasses. Cereal grasses have creeping rhizomes and, if they are not restricted, will quickly take up all the free surface and displace their weaker neighbors.
Herbs and flowers look great in niches between rocks.
Let’s list the coastal grasses.
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Segge Morrova, varieties: ‘Variegata’, ‘Ice Dance’. Height above the surface of the water: 20-30 cm Planting depth in water: 0 cm Prefers shady, moderately warm places. The floor should be moist, with humus. In winter they are kept in the house at T 4-6*C.
All coastal aquatic plants are better to breed in containers to limit their growth and protect the roots from soaking film, if they are located at the bottom of the reservoir.
Grasses are best not cut before winter; their leaves and stems are ornamental under the snow. Mowing is carried out in early spring after the snow melts.
Decorating a garden pond with ferns looks picturesque – provided that the pond is in the shade or partial shade. Planting of ferns:
Now let’s list a few flowers. Some flowers can be planted directly into the water in a container.
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Groundsel flower, varieties: ‘Flore Plena’, ‘Multiple’. Depth of planting in water: 0-15 cm, height above water: 60-80 cm. Can grow in partial shade, but in full sun blooms earlier. Likes light and loamy soils.
Flowers and herbaceous plants are planted in calm, permeable soil.
Aquatic plants for planting in a pond
Coleus is the most common of the aquatic plants, it is also a nymphaea or water lily. In small ornamental ponds, water lilies are grown in vessels submerged in the variety. Water lilies bloom from June until the onset of cold weather. Water lilies are planted in sunny and sheltered locations for lush blooms.
Currently, a large number of paired varieties have been bred, which differ in color and size of flowers, leaves and frost resistance. The most beautiful varieties are “Attraction”, “Fabiola”, “Gonner”, “Rose Areny”, “Chromatella”.
In addition to lilies, the pond can be planted with Nymphaea shield-leaved, watershed, and in the southern regions the Caspian lotus. In northern regions, the lotus is kept in ponds only in the summer. The rhizomes are removed for the winter and stored in moist sand in the basement.
If your pond is less than 1.5 m deep, water lilies are also best taken out and stored in the basement. To do this, the container with the roots is placed in a container with water to cover the soil in the container. Other plants grown in shallow water containers are also preserved.
Aquatic plants are usually sold in small shipping containers, so it is best to transplant them before planting them in water. For planting, we take a container 10-15 cm larger than the transport container, necessarily with drainage holes. At the bottom we put a small layer of expanded clay and fill it with heavy clay. You can use clay from any natural reservoir, swamp or quarry. Transplant the rhizome into the clay and rinse well with water to wash away dusty particles of soil. You can sew the container in a burlap, then the water will not practically be contaminated. After that, we lower the container to a depth appropriate to the type of plant.
Nymphaea fertilizers are used in the spring before immersion in water. All of them have a prolonged action, so they are used once a season. For example, Osmocot. If your garden pond has a soil bottom, you can plant nymphs directly into the ground, as long as you choose a variety that matches the depth of your pond. After planting, the rhizome should be flattened with debris to keep it from floating. Fertilizer is applied to the hole when planting.
Care for aquatic and riparian plants consists of timely cleaning of rotten, withered leaves and stems to avoid fungal diseases.
Conclusion
We hope that this article will help you create a cozy recreation area next to the pond. And may it please you and inspire your friends to do the same!