Bare root marginals

[Pond skipper]

Hi all, I have another question. I'm a brand new member here and pretty new to ponding and really new to planting so I'm afraid I'll be bugging you all with lots of questions for awhile...I am about to start buying some marginal plants to put on the ponds planting shelf. I am getting scared of putting dirt into my pond. The water is so beautifully clear I don't want to get "tea" water. Up to this point I have only bought water hyacinth to float..I am wanting to try and plant bare root. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what kind of marginals will do ok like that and tips on how to go about setting them in. Our pond is 14x7x1.5 kidney shaped and unfortunately is as close to full shade as you could get without being in a cave due to the 2 very large, very healthy trees it is built under so any suggestions for part shade or full shade plants for both in and out of the pond and the pea gravel bog garden at the base of the waterfall would be helpful. Or does anyone know any good websites with that type of info. Any insights will be appreciated. My hardiness zone is 5A

 

[Lisak1]

Same zone as me!

Start with the how - depending on your deep your shelves are, you can either plant directly on the shelf or build up a planting area with a few rocks. You can just use a few handfuls of pea gravel to keep the plant in place until it gets rooted and it will take over from there. Most marginals don't want to be much below 4 or 6 inches deep, so you will most likely be building up and area to plant them in. An alternative it to tuck them between the rocks at the edge with just the roots in the water.

As for dirt, you can remove all the dirt from the plant - it's not necessary to put dirt in the pond at all if you don't want to. Just shake it all loose and rinse the roots in some water and plant away! Just remember that your new plants may struggle until your pond gets established - they rely on the fish waste in the water for food. When you are planting, it's a good idea to poke a fertilizer tablet or spike into the gravel with the plant to give it something to grow on.

As for the what - so many to choose from! Rushes, grasses, irises, and reeds all look pretty in and around a pond. Lots to choose from there! Bog bean is a favorite of mine - it grows from the shoreline and sends out long "feelers" that flower in spring. Marsh marigold is another pretty one - the first thing to grow in the spring and it has bright yellow flowers. Lobelia is beautiful and the bright red flowers attract hummingbirds. You'll see lizard's tail and arum very often in pond stores - both are pretty and very reliable pond growers.

Watch carefully for plants that are aggressive - anything with the word "wort" attached is one family that loves to take over! Mint is another - very big spreaders. If you don't mind managing it, they do fill in fast. We planted a buttercup of some kind that grew from a tiny slip to fill an area about 4 ft by 4 ft before I got smart and dug it all out!

Hope this helps!

 

[Mmathis]

@Pond skipper Can you post some pictures of your pond? @Lisak1 had an excellent answer, and a lot is going to depend on how your pond is constructed — which would help us with advice.

Do you have fish?

 

[Pond skipper]

Same zone as me!

Start with the how - depending on your deep your shelves are, you can either plant directly on the shelf or build up a planting area with a few rocks. You can just use a few handfuls of pea gravel to keep the plant in place until it gets rooted and it will take over from there. Most marginals don't want to be much below 4 or 6 inches deep, so you will most likely be building up and area to plant them in. An alternative it to tuck them between the rocks at the edge with just the roots in the water.

As for dirt, you can remove all the dirt from the plant - it's not necessary to put dirt in the pond at all if you don't want to. Just shake it all loose and rinse the roots in some water and plant away! Just remember that your new plants may struggle until your pond gets established - they rely on the fish waste in the water for food. When you are planting, it's a good idea to poke a fertilizer tablet or spike into the gravel with the plant to give it something to grow on.

As for the what - so many to choose from! Rushes, grasses, irises, and reeds all look pretty in and around a pond. Lots to choose from there! Bog bean is a favorite of mine - it grows from the shoreline and sends out long "feelers" that flower in spring. Marsh marigold is another pretty one - the first thing to grow in the spring and it has bright yellow flowers. Lobelia is beautiful and the bright red flowers attract hummingbirds. You'll see lizard's tail and arum very often in pond stores - both are pretty and very reliable pond growers.

Watch carefully for plants that are aggressive - anything with the word "wort" attached is one family that loves to take over! Mint is another - very big spreaders. If you don't mind managing it, they do fill in fast. We planted a buttercup of some kind that grew from a tiny slip to fill an area about 4 ft by 4 ft before I got smart and dug it all out!

Hope this helps!

That's great thank you! My shelf is lucky if it 3 or 4" down so I'm probably good there. Lol.. do you know off hand, which of those you mentioned will so well growing in a cave..lol.. pond is very shaded.. And also being as you're in the same zone.. What do you do to over winter them, or do you just replace them?

 

[Lisak1]

Shade pond plants... let's see. One of my favorites - and you might laugh - is hostas. You know they love shade, but did you also know they love water? In four inches of water they would do great. They come in so many different colors and sizes - you could have a really unique pond with all hostas.

Any of your rushes or sedges or reeds will do fine in shade. Irises will grow - they may be limited in blossoms though. You may have trouble with floating plants - they like sunshine. And lilies like sunshine to blossom, too, so don't be disappointed if they don't produce a lot of blooms. But they may surprise you. As a gardener, I like to experiment and push the limits - see what happens in my garden.

 

[Pond skipper]

Thanks for the input.. I like the hosta idea, I was thinking of trying to bare root some in my pea gravel bog.. Do you think they would like it there? Really trying to bare root everything including the marginals, as I am trying to keep water from going all tea coloured.. could I bare root hosta in the main pond on the shelves as well?

 

[addy1]

Nothing seems to kill hostas, except strong sun. Even then they are just yucky looking not dead.
And like said there are a ton of colors. And will come back after winter.

I would just bare root in the pea gravel. Everything I plant in the pond or bog is bare root. In the pond I put it in kitty litter, in the bog right into the gravel.

 

[Pond skipper]

Nothing seems to kill hostas, except strong sun. Even then they are just yucky looking not dead.
And like said there are a ton of colors. And will come back after winter.

I would just bare root in the pea gravel. Everything I plant in the pond or bog is bare root. In the bog I put it in kitty litter, in the bog right into the gravel.

Thanks addy! Over last question on this.. I keep seeing people referring to kitty litter as substrate but I know I had a small pile of kitty litter on my garage floor and when I had a bit of water get in the garage the kitty litter turned to a big gelatinous pile of goo... Is the kitty litter you guys refer to just a cute code name for something else

 

[mrsclem]

The kitty litter is plain clay. Most of us get it from Walmart. Make sure to get non-clumping, unscented. It should list only clay as ingredients. I am trying Oil-Dri this year. Used in garages to clean up spills. Same as litter but heat treated.

 

[Lisak1]

Nope - straight up kitty litter. It's just plain clay - no clumping agents or scents. It's a good planting medium for pond plants and it won't hurt the pond if it gets spilled... which it will!

And this should answer the hostas in gravel question:

That's my granddogger Toby cooling off in the rain exchange. He runs and runs and runs and then goes and flops in the cool water for a bit and then runs some more. He's a nut.

Anyway those two hostas are planted directly in the gravel in the rain exchange. I had a few extras one year after dividing them and thought I'd try an experiment - obviously it worked! I've had to divide those a few times since planting and it's AMAZING how they collect sediment around the root ball. It's almost like they ARE planted in the soil.

I can imagine a pretty shaded pond with hostas in all different shades and sizes - we have about 15 varieties in our small yard. All the way from tiny mouse ears up to the giant blues - so fun! And we do have a number of them planted in full shade - in my experience the darker leaved varieties prefer the shade where the lighter colored ones don't mind the sun. These in my rain exchange get lots of sun - basically all day long - but they also get lots of water, so that helps! Hostas can be expensive, but like @addy1 said - they are tough. You won't ever have to plant them twice. We've had them get eaten completely to the ground by rabbits or slugs and they come back stronger than ever.

 

[Pond skipper]

Great thanks for the info you guys. I will definitely try some hosta .. was thinking of some ferns too but the two I have right now that are in pots I have sitting on either side of the waterfall and they don't seem to be flourishing.. they aren't dying I don't think but some fronds have gone brown.. so maybe it's too shady for them..I was going to also try to just bare root all plants in the pond just anchor them with larger rocks or pea gravel.. is that a possibility or doesn't that work and that's why you use kitty litter?

 

[Jhn]

Yes , planting stuff between rocks or in pea gravel, works also. I have many plants in my pond growing between rocks and in pea gravel. Not all intentional.

Pinned lilies and lotus to the pond bottom in 18”-20” of water between rocks, as well. If you don’t want these plants to take over that area I wouldn’t recommend that approach with these particular plants.

 

[Lisak1]

Yup - rocks and gravel work fine, too. Kitty litter is used in pots - I wouldn't add it directly to the pond. Sorry if that was unclear! And as @Jhn - contain your lilies and lotuses, unless you are fond of an all lily/lotus pond!

 

[ROW FISH]

Seems like you have gotten some great advice on marginals. So I'll go another direction and give some advise on lillies. I have a pond that gets at most an hour of sunlight a day. It is by no means a cave setting but much less sun than my large goldfish pond. I have 2 types of lillies in it. One is a new Zealand water snowflake which puts out dozens of small white flowers every day. The other is a Dauben tropical water lillie which grows just fine in low sunlight and will bloom till frost. I have provided a great website, tricker.com, to take a look at. I have ordered 80% of my water plants from them and have never had an issue. They also have great resource material for planting and pond info in general.

 

[Pond skipper]

Great thanks I'll have a look