Good bog plants?

JBtheExplorer

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I lost a couple of my bog plants over the past two winters and I also pulled out one that was really invasive, so I'm looking for some new ones. Half of the bog looks pretty bare and I need to fill it in. I want to know what some of your favorite bog plants are. I'm looking for something that will slowly multiply but not something that'll completely take over. Suggestions?
 
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Oh...too many to choose from. Maybe my favorite part of the pond....at least before coming to Phoenix. Our climate is a bit too harsh for many...but not all.

Canna does slowly multiply and by far my favorite. Almost impossible to get virus free at retail so best source are fellow local ponders and neighbors. Normally these are pre-virus. You get the big leaf tropical look, great flowers imo and can get different heights. Here 8' tall next to 2-3' tall.

canna1.jpg


Society Garlic, Calla Lilly (all kinds), Freesia, Impatiens (some big exotic looking), Pickerel, lots of grasses, Horsetail, lots of Irises, many others. I'd try any plant, most non-traditional pond plants work as long as kept up a couple inches above the water level. I keep water level below gravel surface so I never have string algae issues.

The woody trunk plant in this pic is a Marsh Mallow that I called Rose of Sharon because the ponder who gave it to me called it that. Great to have a tree growing in a bog imo. Needs good pruning to keep the shape you want and provide some shade if needed. Blooms all summer.

bog1.jpg


My smallest bog ever was a bird bath stayed water filled from sprinklers. Sedum, Irish and Scottish mosses. Everyone in the world will tell you Sedum will rot, and it can. But kept in soil and above the water level it can work. I think pretty much every plant will. Can't remember one that didn't and I tried many.
birdbath_pond.jpg


There are also many that will spread far and fast if conditions are right...but easy to cut back if you can give an hour every couple weeks in summer. Easy to pull stuff out of a bog. And really, IMO, you do have to pull almost everything at least once every 2 years or so to divide and thin if you really want the best show. Yeah, it can be left a lone for years and years but generally doesn't do as well imo. So spreading in that case isn't a huge problem.
 
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I had a little trouble with my Pickerel until I raised it up a little. Most of the marginal pond plants that say 6" of water or whatever aren't as much pond plants as they are vernal pool plants, submerged for fairly short periods, few weeks. When they say 6" of water that's the max, not the recommended. I found most prefer wet feet rather than wet crowns.
 

addy1

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My pickerel is around 4 inches below water. It freezes up, when we have a cold winter, Always comes back. It is in kitty litter in some black plant pots. Getting a bit crowded I need to add another pot, separate some of it.

Lizards tail grows well below water, I have some around 4 inches below surface, also in the bog gravel right at surface and some just out of the water.

My iris grow either surface or below water, same with the rushes. I have them both places.

Bean bog, I have at surface and 2 inches down, it likes wet, the stems sort of float out.
The creeping primrose (someone said that was the wrong name for the plant) is growing below water or right at surface.

They all seem to be able to handle either and all grow darn well either place.

Another nice plant is yellow floating heart, it too is growing 5 inches below water and right at surface. It is small and looks real pretty with the yellow flowers.

All of my plants freeze up in the winter.

Oh and also some are now growing out in dirt............
 

JBtheExplorer

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Bean bog, I have at surface and 2 inches down, it likes wet, the stems sort of float out.

I did some more research into Bogbean last night. Very cool looking plant! I looked at my local garden center's 2017 plant list and they didn't have it listed, but I'm hoping the pond place out west does. Might have to make the trip once the weather warms up. I'm not sure they're open this time of year. Wish they had a website.
 
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If a person looks at a mud pond with cattails for example...
images

As the water gets deeper the plants get shorter and thinner until they simply can't survive. Same thing on shore, the further from water the shorter and thinner the plant. True for all marginals. It has to do partly with the amount of O2 they can get.

Certainly not to say they can't do well with a submerged crown. There is greater risk of rot, but risk doesn't mean certainty. And of course submerged crown often means string algae in and around the plants which I don't care for myself. But I have heard people say they never get string algae....until they do.
 

addy1

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. And of course submerged crown often means string algae in and around the plants which I don't care for myself. But I have heard people say they never get string algae....until they do.

None so far in the big pond, never wraps around the plants. I do get string in the slow moving small fishless ponds. I leave it for the tads etc to live in, in a way it is part of the big ponds filtration.
 
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Bog bean is one of my favorites. Our favorite pond stores get it early every spring but it sells out very quickly. It's been a slow starter in my pond, but once it gets going it's so pretty. The display pond we first saw it in had it growing almost halfway across the surface of the pond.
 

addy1

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Mine took a year to really get going, now it is covering my deck pond. Love the flowers in the spring.
I have some in the bog, but there is to much competition there.
 
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I found that there are companies that sell only plants that are only native to your area, they may be wholesale/retail.
Maybe your local county office can tell you who they use for a wetlands plant supplier for any local restoration projects.
 

JBtheExplorer

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@Lisak1 Now you guys are really making me want to find Bogbean! I'm surprised I never knew about it before.
 

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