Do you have a pond? Or is a pond on your garden wish list? A pond isn’t just attractive for people; insects like damselflies and dragonflies are also attracted to them for their pond plants. Here is some helpful information about the kinds of pond plants you could use in your dream pond.
Familiar pond plants
When you say ‘pond plants’, most people first think of water lilies. Or the elegant and highly symbolic lotus flower that closes in the evening and opens the next morning. These sun-worshipping plants are available in many colours and sizes, and you don’t even need a large pond to grow them. Some water lilies will thrive in mini-ponds just 30 centimetres deep.
Benefits
You have a very wide choice of plants for stocking a pond. There are marginal, bog, floating and oxygenating plants. All are important for maintaining the biological balance in a pond. The plants in ponds remove nutrients from the water and provide shade; both of these characteristics help to limit the growth of algae. And animals hide beneath them or lay their eggs on them.
Water’s edge and bogs
Marginal and bog plants are plants that grow in wet soil or shallow water. Frogs and salamanders like to hide among these kinds of plants. One familiar example is the golden-flowering Marsh Marigold (Caltha). Another, the Mare’s Tail (Hippurus), produces feathery stems that stick up above the water. The Golden-club (Orontium) produces white spadices tipped with yellow that resemble little candles rising above the surface.
Floating
Floating pond plants, as their name suggests, float on the water’s surface. The nice thing about them is that they increase in number so easily. The floating plants include the Water Soldier (Stratiotes) and the Water Lettuce (Pistia). Since they provide a pond with a lot of shade, they are perfect for keeping the water from becoming too warm in the summer.
Oxygenating
Oxygenating pond plants remain completely submerged throughout the year. They may not be that visually prominent but they generate a lot of oxygen in the pond water. Waterweeds (Elodea) are a familiar oxygenating pond plant. Watermillfoil (Myriophyllum) and Pondweed (Potamogeton) are another two oxygenating varieties.
Tips
- Pond plants need enough warmth and light in order to grow well, so make sure that they get sun or partial sun.
- The more levels your pond has, the greater your choice of plants. This is because every plant has its own preferred water depth.
