Last spring, after coming home from Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, I determined to attempt a floating impatien island for my small pond. I wanted something flowering and providing cover while the lilies were dormant.
Not my picture, but here is what I'm talking about:
Now, my pond is much much smaller!
I experimented with regular impatiens and the new sun-patiens; a cross of New Guinea and wild impatiens. I also experimented with planting in kitty litter and planting bare root.
For my pond, the hands down winner was bare root sunpatiens.
Here is the mother plant last week, it is roughly 3 feet in diameter. It started out as a rescue from the Lowes dieing plant rack late last spring.
I've not been able to get a good photo showing all the roots growing freely in the water below the plant, but they go out quite a ways beyond the edge of the plant. As you can see, there is even a branch completely submerged that is surprisingly not rotted.
I started another container a few weeks ago. Just took a piece of window screening, made a type of bucket inside a scrap of 1/2 hosing, and then tied on a bunch of corks around the edge. You can see how much the roots have grown, and how they are growing through the screening.
I spent a bit more time on the original floating island, but as you can see from the first picture, you can hardly see it anymore the impatien has gotten so big, so this last one I just made simpler. Here is the first island,
Not my picture, but here is what I'm talking about:
Now, my pond is much much smaller!
I experimented with regular impatiens and the new sun-patiens; a cross of New Guinea and wild impatiens. I also experimented with planting in kitty litter and planting bare root.
For my pond, the hands down winner was bare root sunpatiens.
Here is the mother plant last week, it is roughly 3 feet in diameter. It started out as a rescue from the Lowes dieing plant rack late last spring.
I've not been able to get a good photo showing all the roots growing freely in the water below the plant, but they go out quite a ways beyond the edge of the plant. As you can see, there is even a branch completely submerged that is surprisingly not rotted.
I started another container a few weeks ago. Just took a piece of window screening, made a type of bucket inside a scrap of 1/2 hosing, and then tied on a bunch of corks around the edge. You can see how much the roots have grown, and how they are growing through the screening.
I spent a bit more time on the original floating island, but as you can see from the first picture, you can hardly see it anymore the impatien has gotten so big, so this last one I just made simpler. Here is the first island,
