Cattails

[buckry]

Ok, so I bought 10 Dwarf Sagitarius online to put in baskets along my bridge. I thought they would grow up tall and really frame my bridge in and make it look awesome. What I didn't know was that the "dwarf" in dwarf sagitarius means freaking tiny. These things are literally 3" tall. So I put them in my waterfall/mini bog and they look super happy up there, but that leaves me with wanting something along my bridge.

So we have a pond here at work that has cattails all around it. Can I go dig up some of those put them in a bucket and then somehow get them into my pond? Is this possible? Is it safe? We have bass and catfish in the pond for sure, but beyond that I don't know anything about it. It's fed from some mysterious underground source and our parking lots, and in general it's pretty stagnant. Is this reasonable or should I figure something else out? Cattails are very pretty, I'd love to have some, but don't want to make some huge blunder here.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

I much prefer collecting plants from the wild rather than buying them. Not only do I save money, but I find it more satistying.
Some people fear some sort of contamination with wild plants, but in reality store bought plant are anything but sterile and often come from sources that are probably pretty much the same as your parking lot pond.
Yellow irises, cattails, bulrush, watercress, grass sedge, are a few of the plants I have in my pond that have been collected from wild sources.

By the way, what is a cattail to you? If you Google cattails you'll see pictures of cattails and bulrush, and visa vera, if you google bulrush you'll see pictures of bulrush and cattails, anybody know for sure which is which?

 

[buckry]

The cattail to me is those bushy brown hotdog things on sticks. I don't know what a bulrush is, let me google that really fast.

 

[buckry]

So one of them is just tall grass the other has the hot dogs. No idea which is which, it looks like the whole world is seriously confused. Might have to check wikipedia for the definitive answer.

 

[addy1]

I put in dwarf cat tails, they took a year to get going, about 2 foot tall.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

So one of them is just tall grass the other has the hot dogs. No idea which is which, it looks like the whole world is seriously confused. Might have to check wikipedia for the definitive answer.

Yeah, that's been my dilemma. When I was a kid, and there was no internet, I always believed the hotdog ones were bulrush and the skinny ones were cattails,,,, after all, how many cats do you see with hotdogs on the end of their tails???

 

[addy1]

lol what a visual!

 

[buckry]

Yeah, that name doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

[buckry]

Wikipedia isn't really clear, it says in Britain they call cattails Bulrush, but according to them cattails have the hot dog on the end. I think it's just easier to say it's all the same plant, even if that's not quite exactly right scientifically.

 

[ComputerGuy]

Cat tails in the US are the ones with the corn dog on the end of the stick. It's also called corndog grass.

"These plants are conspicuous and hence have many common names. The may be known in British English as bulrush, or reedmace,[sup][1][/sup] in American English as cattail, catninetail, punks, or corndog grass, in Australia as cumbungi or bulrush, and in New Zealand as raupo"

 

[buckry]

I think I'm going to start calling them Cumbungi. If everyone else does this too, we can avoid all of this confusion...

 

[j.w]

Yep you can put either the regular wild size or the mini Cat tails in your pond in a big pot with the top of the pot at water level. I just stuck my mini ones in between my rocks around my pond w/ their feet in water. One thing tho when in a pot they will need dividing and oh boy if you wait too long to divide you might need a chain saw to get them apart. I waited too long once and it was a nasty job w/ them. You can use clay soil or kitty litter or gravel,whatever, they don't care and they don't need fertilizer. I had mine in 5 gal blk pots when they went nuts!

 

[sissy]

my neighbor got some mini elephant ears from florida hill nurseries online I think they were like 6 dollars and they are around a foot and half high

 

[adavisus]

Anything looking like a cattail gets the 'common' name in America

Typha latifolia, Greater reedmace - 6-10' tall stems 1" wide (huge brute of plant, dumps a lot of seed, can destroy lakes, ponds in a few years)
Typha angustifolia, Lesser reedmace - About 4-6' tall with leaves 1/2" wide (not quite so large brute of plant, dumps a lot of seed, can destroy lakes ponds in a few years)
Typha laxmanii, Gracefull cattail - 4' tall (sedate growing habit easy to control)
Typha minima - 18" tall (can be hit or miss to get going)

When the large aggressive cattail choke a pond, you will need a tow truck to pull them out and an axe to divide them,

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.co...s/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[j.w]

Ha Ha Andy you were even harder on the poor cattails in telling what you will need to divide them if they get outta hand...............but it is true................they can be monsters and the ones I had were all mini's 18" size. I had just let them go for many yrs..............not good!