Lets talk pond shrubbery

crsublette

coyotes call me Charles
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Yep, in the introduction section under howdy, glad to find y'all. :) But ... it's more of a water feature than a pond I think. I need to do an update since I got my plants and comets in there. Now, the rocks on the walls that are underwater have a nice looking green coat on them, but I vaccuum the bottom river rocks once a week to keep most of the algae off of them so the color of the rock stands out. I have surrounded my rock spires with some verigated tall and curly top Rushes, Water Celery, and some other dinky little plants. I also got some Maris Tail and Parrot's Feather kind of tucked underneath the flagstone table so that the stems kind of float up staying near the side of the table (heh, if that makes any sense). Everything looks good but half of my Water Celery is still in transition so they don't have a good full green color to them yet.

I would also like to put a little galvanized or wooden stocktank bog on the side of it once I figure out what I want to plant in it. I think I want there to be some carnivorous plants in it with some small yuccas, and some "desert stemmy looking" shrubs or something like that.

Not for sure yet if a "desert stemmy looking" shrub type thing is out there, that can work in a bog environment.

I got a dwarf grey cotoneaster in my xericscape garden plots, but I am not for sure if it would work in a bog environment. I have read that it can get a fire blight disease from bacteria if watered too much.

Any ideas for a stemmy, small leaf type, short shrub?
 
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Does Water Celery need to be planted, or the roots tucked into something or can it just float freely in a pond? I received some as a bonus w an order I made and I am not sure how to utilize it. :question:

:goldfish:
 

crsublette

coyotes call me Charles
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I don't know if it can float freely. The Water Celery I bought was fairly heavy in a pot of tight clay so that it could sit on an underwater shelf and the plant was about 16 inches tall and 12 inches wide.

Water Celery I bought from the greenhouse, which I bought all they had, was just planted in some really tight clay soil in a pot. I just got a wider pot, that was a little shorter than the original pot, and drilled 1/8" holes all over it. I figure the wider pot gives the plant more room ... I guess, it might not. Anyways ... The tight clay soil it already was in stayed together very well, none of it floated out except for a very tiny bit when first putting it in the water.

I bet ya can just use the generic walmart clay kitty litter, red/blue bag, or I figure ya can use pea gravel. This stuff just keeps the plant anchored and I guess can help protect the plants roots from fishies get'n to them, but the roots will eventually start poking out of the holes in the pot, which is ok.

I am told the water should only go up to the top of the root ball.

In my situation, the water only wetted the bottom half of the root ball. So, I used a small 400 gph fountain pump to feed a manifold that feeds 8 or more 1/4" tubes where I had one tube per plant to wet the top half of the root ball. This is probably not necessary tho. I don't know. The manifold I am talking about is a drip irrigation part that ya screw on a 1/2" pipe thread, normally where a lawn/garden sprinkler is, but I put it on the fountain pump.

Quick heads up ... It took about 2~3 weeks for the water celery to wake up from its transplant shock. Once it transitioned, it got really green and started new growth from the root ball.

I never did anything to fertilize it since the greenhouse people said there was a fertilizer mixed into the tight clay soil.
 
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Thank you for the information on the Water Celery. I currently have it floating in a floating planter in my pond. ;) I have nothing on the roots since I ran out of cat litter. Tomorrow I hope to purchase more from Walmart. I am also going to a friends house who has a lagoon on her property to transplant some sedges and get some duck weed or frog bit or whatever it is called to float in my pond as well. My fish love snacking on it. I hae a kiddy pool that I have some growing, but it does not grow fast enough for my finned pigs! Some will go into the pond and the rest into the kiddy pool to grow fo a later feeding/floating. I so need to get on top of the green water, but want to use natural solutions. :)

:goldfish:
 

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