Help with pond plants please

[Jersey_Marine]

I live in north Jersey (Zone 6-7). It is around 50-60 degrees right now on average during the day and drops down to 40 or so at night. I was wondering if it is too early to buy water lillies, lettuce, hyacinths and creeping jenny and put them in the pond. I really want to get some plants in there though. I also would like to know opinions on ordering plants online. I was looking at a website called pond mega store and there were several others. If anybody has any information for me or experiences with certain online plant retailers it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[bettasngoldfish]

I am having similar weather here as you are. It's still a little too early/cold for the hyacinth and watter lettuce. I was thinking I would probably get mine in the next few weeks or so.

Make sure you buy hardy water lilies. That way they will come back every year. I'm not a big gardener but I think it's still a little early to plant the creeping Jenny.

Hopefully others who know will chime in.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Any hardy plants that are rated for your zone will be fine if you buy them now and plant them, but water lettuce and water hyacinths prefer the warm/hot weather.

Our garden centers here don't have any plants available yet, pond or other, and it's been warm for weeks.

 

[RobAmy]

Like JB my pond supplier does not have any plants yet either. Water parsley does very well here in zone 6a. First plant to grow in the water when still cold. The forget me knots are popping up too.

 

[j.w]

Creeping Jenny and the hardy water lilies you can do now. We are in the mid 50's during the day now and the Creeping Jenny is starting to creep and my water lilies are sending up pads.

 

[Jersey_Marine]

What are the hardiest water lillies available? I need to buy more this year. Last year my Koi feasted on them and left nothing. Not even the stalks. Hopefully it doesnt happen again this year. They had plenty of hyacinth and lettuce last year to snack on but they decided to eat the expensive stuff.

 

[j.w]

Any of the hardy ones that say hardy should be fine but your koi will demolish them this year too if they did so last year. I have just goldfish and they don't eat them. Some people try to come up w/ways of stopping them so maybe somebody else w/koi can help you on this subject.

 

[MariaTeresa]

As for online plant retailers, I've purchased plants from dragonflyaquatics.com and have been very pleased. Their customer service is also very helpful.

 

[j.w]

Sometimes we share plants on here for just the price of the postage when we have extras.

 

[j.w]

Also @adavisus sells nice plants and he's a member here.

 

[CountryEscape]

I have penny wart coming back in my bog, water lilies have a few pads on the surface, the other pots are all growing now, too. Creeping jenny that is in the pond has been green and growing for several weeks, although the stuff in the ground outside is just now really taking off. Other good hardy plants, if you have a shallow area (like a bog), are irises and day lilies. Both do well in the water, and survive the winter.
How big is your pond and what kind of plants (besides lilies) are you looking for? I have koi, they have never bothered my lilies. Not sure why, but they haven't. They are 3-4 years old, and the biggest is about 16-20" long. I usually put a few rocks on the lily tubers, mainly because otherwise they might float to the surface. Once they are rooted well, it's hard for ME to get them out of the pots. Are your lily pots large enough, or are the lilies maybe outgrowing the pots, and the koi are finding them easy to get to?

 

[Lisak1]

Our koi don't bother our plants either...not sure why, but I'm guessing once they start it's tough to get them to stop. I have frogs that won't leave some of my marginals alone, though. The dig my little grasses up constantly!

 

[CountryEscape]

You know, Lisa, I wonder if my bullfrogs in the bog were the culprit to a new iris I have in a small pot. It was leaning over this afternoon, I had to put it back into the pot.

 

[milhousebarks]

Once your Koi have a taste for water lilies it is going to be really hard to keep them away.

One option with Koi might be adding a lotus and keeping the top of its pot near the surface so the Koi can't swim over it. Or you can add a little hardware cloth (1/4 inch mesh wire) around the top of the pot to keep them out. Since Lotus will grow up out of the water after a few surface pads you should be able to keep them out of range of Koi. Water lilies are harder since the pots need to be lower and it is pretty hard to find a way to fence in the floating leaves in any way that is attractive. If your pond is deeper where you might put a lotus, you'll just need to pile up a few cement blocks or use something like a milk crate to get the pot up higher.

 

[MariaTeresa]

I'm in North Jersey as well and my creeping jenny is flourishing at the moment. Still too cold for water lettuce and hyacinth. Bog bean is growing as are the irises and forget-me-nots.

Has anyone tried putting their water lily in a crate? It would seem to me that the pads and flowers would easily grow through but it would keep the koi out, at least the larger koi. [Edit] Oops! I just saw that milhousebarks suggested this!