height for new pond plants

[Huckleberry12]

I picked up my Laguna 2000 today and while I was at it bought a few plants for starters: an Iris louisiana Ann Chowning (red!), a white marsh marigold which I understand is more restrained than the yellow, and a water hawthorn. The stems of the latter are about 10" and there is one flower. My wondering is about logistics (and the same question applies to water lilies) does one need a whole pond full of furniture options to gradually lower the depth until its stems are longer? My pond is 26" deep. It seems rather cruel and unusual punishment to plunk such plants down at 18" or more so that they are totally submerged, but their stems won't get longer if they don't need to. I'm sure there must be an obvious solution that I am missing! I saw online that Staples has black plastic crates - not sure how high they are. Wish I had stopped there today. Does one just improvise - crate plus bricks or whatever?

 

[Lisak1]

The answer to your question is - it depends. Not many water plants would enjoy being more than 2 feet under water. (Water lilies being the obvious exception.) Most of the plants you mentioned are considered marginals, meaning they grow in the shallower margins of the pond. Hence the need for shelves in the pond. Alternatively you can use crates or bricks or whatever you can conceive of to create "shelves" in your pond.

You can also grow most of those plants in between the rocks at the edge of the pond, if you have rocks that are partially submerged at pond edge.

 

[Huckleberry12]

Oh, yes, I wasn't clear. Sorry. I'm fine with the regular marginals (like iris and marsh marigolds); I have a shallow shelf around the circumference and will have a bog. It's the deep-water ones I was wondering about. I was just thinking about those which prefer 18"-24", but I guess there aren't very many of them. And I just read somewhere that water hawthorn can be happy with 6"-18" so I could suspend one as well (as another option).

 

[Tula]

Well, honestly I plunk my lilies at the bottom of the pond and they do fine Folks use all sorts of things to raise plants, crates, cement blocks, plastic tables etc.

 

[Lisak1]

Oh, yes, I wasn't clear. Sorry. I'm fine with the regular marginals (like iris and marsh marigolds); I have a shallow shelf around the circumference and will have a bog. It's the deep-water ones I was wondering about. I was just thinking about those which prefer 18"-24", but I guess there aren't very many of them. And I just read somewhere that water hawthorn can be happy with 6"-18" so I could suspend one as well (as another option).

Ah! Well lilies can be placed at the bottom of the pond - the pads will very quickly find their way to the top if they aren't already long enough. I don't know about a water hawthorn - going to look that one up.

 

[CountryEscape]

The only reason I move my lilies from the shelf or crate (because I wanted a lily on the other end of the pond) is to encourage their growth earlier in the spring. Otherwise, even if you get a lily that has leaf stems that are only 12" long, you can put them wherever you want them to grow. In the depth of your pond, you can put them on the bottom. The only exception to this would be if you have a mini lily, that has smaller "footprint" (size when it's fully grown) and tend to not grow as long as the other standard lilies. Good luck with your new prizes!

 

[Huckleberry12]

Oh well that is all good to know. Thank you! The thing that appealed especially to me about the water hawthorn is that it hangs about in the winter if it is not freezing and takes the summers off. I'll be interested to see how it does here in the mild winters we have. Seems like it would be a good complement to a water lily in providing some protective covering for the fish. It is lovely to have been able to get these few plants today, after spending the past while focusing on plumbing! Though tomorrow I have to get down to it and try putting the hosing together (including for the bog). I'm hoping I won't find myself needing some connector that will require yet another trip off island! It'll be great to get that done and then I can get the gravel in the bog. And plants!

 

[addy1]

There always seems to be something needed when building a pond, no matter how many lists you make..............it is the rule of ponding.

I put in water hawthorn, but lost track of it. Has a great smell when it blooms.

 

[tbendl]

I like the sound of water hawthorn, I'll have to google that and see if it would work down here. And Huckleberry, I dropped my tiny lily straight to the bottom, the pads were only a few inches long. I did that last Sunday and I already have 6 tiny lily pads on the surface. They grew like crazy to get to the surface.