Over wintering pond plants, some of the common ones

[EricV]

Thanks Lisa. I'm still thinking about what I want to do about leaving the pond running in the winter. You are just a bit north of me, I think, but I'm still really concerned that my waterfall will freeze and cause my pump to run dry and destroy it. Also kicking around the idea of low water sensor for my peace of mind.

 

[ChrisP]

We're about the same climate as Chicago (less snow) and I've never been able to leave the pump running. This was a mild winter for the most part, I had various parts of the filter and water fall freeze and spill over. I lost a couple of inches which caused the ice shelf to collapse...

It's back to a air stone only for me.

I've never had trouble with hardy marginals and freezing. I nature they'd freeze, so...

 

[addy1]

I quit lowering my lilies, once I found the ones in my shallow fishless pond, were doing just fine at around 12 inches down from the surface. I do groom them, cutting all leaves buds off.
All other plants in the pond are on their own, deep, shallow , in ponds that freeze solid (very shallow stream ponds) and the deck pond due to exposure freezes solid. They always come back every spring. If they don't they are not replaced. I don't have the time or desire to save plants that are not meant for my zone.

I use a pond breather to keep my pond healthy over winter. Shut everything else off. The bog stays full of water, without the water the plants would dry up and die. They survive winter in a block of ice.

The surface area of my filter/bog is too large to leave running and the pump is external, power off, frozen pump.

 

[Mmathis]

Lots of good information, and stuff I haven't thought about in a while. Last "winter," the weather here was so mild that I had WH that survived in my QT, ready to go when spring-time rolled around. That was good for me as WH is banned in LA, so it would have been hard to replace. I had 2 plants (dwarf papyrus -- on sale from Lowes or HD) and a taro of some sort (a freebie when I bought something here locally) that I'd put out as marginals, expecting both to crash over winter, but both survived and have done well. Sooooo, hoping for another mild winter as I don't have a way to over-winter anything indoors.

 

[addy1]

We need a cold winter, kill the bugs, reset the plants. Keep the bees from flying and eating their winter food.
My seeds germinate then they die with a cold snap a nice cold winter that stays cold is golden.

 

[Jeanie master]

All of our marginals are naturalized in the pond - no more potted plants to contend with every year. We did learn (the hard way, naturally!) that the water needs to stay at the normal level in the pond when it ices over. The first year we shut the waterfall off and, because of our pond design, the water level drops about 5 or 6 inches. All of our marginals were then exposed to the air. I figured "freezing water, freezing air - what's the difference?" Well, there is a definite difference! Every one of our marginals died that year. The following year we decided to leave the waterfall on all winter (for a variety of reasons) and learned as a happy consequence that all the marginals not only survived, but thrived over two of the harshest winters we have had in recent memory. Lesson learned!

Last year I also left all my lily pots right where they are in the pond - I had been dropping them to the lowest level. But as our koi got bigger I started to feel like the pots were taking up so much real estate in the bottom of the pond that there wasn't as much room for the fish. So I decided to leave the pots where they were and surprise! The lilies did great.

The message here - I am a lazy gardener. The less work I have to do every year the happier I am!

Just got time to catch up, when you say "naturilized" do you mean they are just used to staying put or are they somehow "planted" in the pond? (Remember I'm new lol)
Are these plants the are all "hardy" , not umbrellas etc ight?
How deep are your lilies and what do you have them sitting on that gives the fish more room than the pots themselves would. Ty

 

[Lisak1]

The plants (all hardy) are growing directly in the pond. The method varies depending on the area where they are planted. I have some rocks on the pond edge that we pulled forward a bit and backfilled with pea gravel. Those areas stay wet enough to grow marginals like cardinal flower, various sedges, etc. Then I have a few areas where I started reeds by putting them on the pond side of the edge, but wedged between the rocks until they took root. They grow outward into the pond with the roots reaching down to the shelf (which is topped with small rocks and gravel) below them. In other areas, I have larger rocks sitting on the shelf under the water with plants tucked between or behind them. I also have a floating planter that has been completely taken over by some creeping jenny and cardinal flower that self-seeded. My favorite (completely by accident) planting solution was when one of my fabric "pots" (made for aquatic planting) split right in half. I was going to repot the plant and then thought "hmmmm...". I took the two halves, which were solid with roots and gravel, peeled the fabric pot away as much as possible, and then set those two halves right on the shelf - flat sides against the edge. The following spring the plants (thalia and arrow arum) came back and have grown there ever since. That was actually the light bulb moment for me when I realized I didn't need the pots - I've never looked back!

We have a couple of lily pots that sit on top of our fish cave - which is actually a clay chimney flue so it's nice and flat. The remaining lily pots are on shelves around the pond, most at the 16 inch level. Like addy1, I cut them all back and then just leave them right where they are. In the beginning, I would lower all the lily pots to the bottom of the pond, stacking the pots on top of each other when I could in an attempt to leave more room for the fish in the lowest level - remember this happens in late October/early November. That water is COLD. Any pot movement was happening from outside the pond, not in! And come spring I would have to fish those pots back up to the shallower water - the warmer the water, the faster they start to grow so you want them up where the sun can warm them even in the early spring. Again - cold water. I don't get in the pond before mid-May. It's not easy to manipulate those pots from outside the pond. Now that they stay put, it's one less thing for me to worry about come spring.

Whether or not you can leave your waterfall running is COMPLETELY dependent on the unique design of your pond. There are so many factors to consider - waterfall design, pump location, etc. - that you really have to calculate all the possibilities. One of our major concerns was the pond running low over winter and ruining the pump, so we made sure we brought a hose inside so we would have one that was not frozen solid should the need arise. The first year we left our pond running was one of the worst winters we have had in Chicago in decades - it started snowing in November and we had constant snow cover until April. And cold like we hadn't experienced in many, many years. Had we known what was coming we would never have chanced it with leaving the pond running. But now that we did and everything was fine, we have confidence that our pond can stand up to pretty much the worst that winter can bring.

Hope that answers your questions! The best advice I can give regarding plants is to try - experiment with different planting methods and see what works for you!

 

[Mmathis]

Excellent advice @Lisak1! You have now joined @addy1 in my book as the garden pond experts for GPF!

 

[Jeanie master]

The plants (all hardy) are growing directly in the pond. The method varies depending on the area where they are planted. I have some rocks on the pond edge that we pulled forward a bit and backfilled with pea gravel. Those areas stay wet enough to grow marginals like cardinal flower, various sedges, etc. Then I have a few areas where I started reeds by putting them on the pond side of the edge, but wedged between the rocks until they took root. They grow outward into the pond with the roots reaching down to the shelf (which is topped with small rocks and gravel) below them. In other areas, I have larger rocks sitting on the shelf under the water with plants tucked between or behind them. I also have a floating planter that has been completely taken over by some creeping jenny and cardinal flower that self-seeded. My favorite (completely by accident) planting solution was when one of my fabric "pots" (made for aquatic planting) split right in half. I was going to repot the plant and then thought "hmmmm...". I took the two halves, which were solid with roots and gravel, peeled the fabric pot away as much as possible, and then set those two halves right on the shelf - flat sides against the edge. The following spring the plants (thalia and arrow arum) came back and have grown there ever since. That was actually the light bulb moment for me when I realized I didn't need the pots - I've never looked back!

We have a couple of lily pots that sit on top of our fish cave - which is actually a clay chimney flue so it's nice and flat. The remaining lily pots are on shelves around the pond, most at the 16 inch level. Like addy1, I cut them all back and then just leave them right where they are. In the beginning, I would lower all the lily pots to the bottom of the pond, stacking the pots on top of each other when I could in an attempt to leave more room for the fish in the lowest level - remember this happens in late October/early November. That water is COLD. Any pot movement was happening from outside the pond, not in! And come spring I would have to fish those pots back up to the shallower water - the warmer the water, the faster they start to grow so you want them up where the sun can warm them even in the early spring. Again - cold water. I don't get in the pond before mid-May. It's not easy to manipulate those pots from outside the pond. Now that they stay put, it's one less thing for me to worry about come spring.

Whether or not you can leave your waterfall running is COMPLETELY dependent on the unique design of your pond. There are so many factors to consider - waterfall design, pump location, etc. - that you really have to calculate all the possibilities. One of our major concerns was the pond running low over winter and ruining the pump, so we made sure we brought a hose inside so we would have one that was not frozen solid should the need arise. The first year we left our pond running was one of the worst winters we have had in Chicago in decades - it started snowing in November and we had constant snow cover until April. And cold like we hadn't experienced in many, many years. Had we known what was coming we would never have chanced it with leaving the pond running. But now that we did and everything was fine, we have confidence that our pond can stand up to pretty much the worst that winter can bring.

Hope that answers your questions! The best advice I can give regarding plants is to try - experiment with different planting methods and see what works for you!

Ty so much for all the information and time. I will start working on this!
I need to post an update on my green pond but I'm haven't figured UT where to do it! I'm an idiot!

 

[Lisak1]

I'm an idiot!

There are no pond idiots! Just newbies! You'll get there!

And thanks @Mmathis - that's a high compliment!

 

[Mmathis]

There are no pond idiots! Just newbies! You'll get there!

And thanks @Mmathis - that's a high compliment!

You never stop learning!

 

[Jeanie master]

There are no pond idiots! Just newbies! You'll get there!

And thanks @Mmathis - that's a high compliment!

No no...not about the pond, you'd just think I'd get how to post and where to post by now!

 

[Lisak1]

you'd just think I'd get how to post and where to post by now

Yup... that's what I meant! No one who's smart enough to have a pond can possibly be an idiot!

 

[addy1]

My bog stays full of water, it freezes and the plants come back every year, marginal plants stay where they are, usually one to three inches under the water surface. Lilies, I move them down to around 18 inches, some I have forgotten to move, they are around a foot down and have done fine. So now I do not even move them.
The lotus are in their own tub and do just fine, even with the water freezing pretty deep.
The shallow deck pond with bog bean, iris, some other misc plants all do fine even with the pond freezing solid.

 

[CountryEscape]

I have waterfall and small bog on my koi pond, stream emptying into goldfish pond and large bog in goldfish pond. All of my pumps are submersible. There are pumps in skimmers, too. What I have found works best for me is to pull the pumps from the skimmer in the late fall/early winter, before any freezing goes on, and I then attach them to a milk crate and drop that crate down in the ponds. That way the pump is NEVER on the bottom of the pond (just in case any break in line so water doesn't empty to the bottom of the pond in a disaster!), and keep those pumps running. The only thing I shut off is the waterfall, because I feel it does more cooling of the water than anything. I leave both bogs running, and the stream. I have had to raise the edges of the stream to keep any ice from forming and directing the water over the edge, but that was the only learning experience with ice. The other thing was moving the skimmer pumps, as sometimes the water would freeze below where the skimmer could pull from. I'm in south/central IL, so not as cold as northern IL/Chicago area, but we still get cold and my ponds freeze. I don't move any of my plants. The only ones that come in are elephant ear bulbs (they come in dry, stored dry and not in pots). The rest of my plants are hardy, wasn't able to keep tropical lily alive inside, so didn't get any more of them.
Jeannie, if you prefer to use pots for lilies (I think most recommend that they be in clay, not bare root - Addy jump in on this, since I think you did a comparison, and bare root did not perform nearly as well ...), use pure clay kitty litter. It's getting harder and harder to find, since everyone wants the clumping type of litter (me included!!!), but Wal-Mart by me has it still. All of my bog plants are direct planted into the pea gravel, no pots, no dirt of any type. Marginals simply means those plants will grow on the "margin" of the pond, in shallow water. Some of those want to have the crown above the water's edge, some 1-6" below, so it all depends on the plant itself.
Good luck!!!