Marginal plant questions

[Pond skipper]

morning all, my waterfall/bog rebuild is finally done for this year. I still have some liner to hide but other than that I’ve finally beaten the leak I had in the bog. (It still has a small leak but I’ve got the pump for the bog on a timer it turns on for a couple hours on the morning and then turns on for an hour mid day and another hour around supper and one more between 10 and 11 pm . That strategy seems to have kept the leak to a level that isn’t even noticeable. I haven’t had to add water in 3 days now. (Used to have to add every day just to keep the skimmer from going dry.) so I’m very happy!
I’ve also added all the plants I can afford for this year. I got all perennials but I’m not very good with Plante so also tried to get easy ones. I have a few questions I forgot to ask the lady at the nursery though. Like with my pickerel rush. I bought it to use along the one edge on the planting shelf. I live in Ontario, Canada. In hardiness zone 5. My three questions about them are
1. Pickerel rush Planting depth. I have them so the pots are just below the water surface, I read somewhere though that the leaves should be floating on the surface, should I be sinking the pots to the bottom so only the leaves are on the surface?

2. Will they do well if I transfer them to baskets with clay Kitty litter instead of soil?

3. How should they be overwintered

I also have a variegated sweet flag.
With the same three questions.

Here is a picture. It’s not the subject of days but I still think it looks nice in the shade too.

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Pickerel rush is a tall plant & the leaves are high above the water on long stalks, so they really shouldn't be 'floating' on the surface. I'm sure they'll be fine in kitty litter & I'd place them so the crown of the plant is right at the water's surface. They do creep deeper, but seem to like starting out a bit shallower. Same for the sweet flag.

If the plants are hardy to your growing zone (which these both are) just wait for the foliage to naturally die back in the fall/winter, trim off the dead leaves & ignore them until Spring.

 

[Pond skipper]

Thank you.. those are exactly the answers I was hoping for lol. In powe pretty sure that’s how you winter the lily pads too. The simpler the better for me.

 

[Lisak1]

If you really want to make it simple, get them out of the pots completely and let them naturalize in the pond. One strategy I used was to plant in those fabric bags. Over time the roots will grow right though the bag.

 

[Pond skipper]

Well now, that’s exactly what I’ve been wanting to do but I couldn’t figure out how to get any substrate to stay put without a basket or pot. I’m not Familiar with the bags you are talking about, also if using the bags would you still use Kitty litter.

 

[Jhn]

You don’t even need substrate for most aquatic plants. For example pickerel rush, just wedge it between the rock edging your pond with the roots in the water, it will take off from there, same with irises, etc.

 

[Lisak1]

What @Jhn said - if you have the kind of shelves where you can just shove plants between the rocks, you're golden!

 

[Pond skipper]

That’s awesome, that would work best for me. I’d sitter of heard of that but didn’t know if it would really work. Will they survive the winter that way? I have a bubbler that keeps the pond from freezing over completely. At least there’s always enough of a hole in the surface to keep the fish alive. Also, is there any danger of the roots poking through the liner?

 

[Lisak1]

If they're hardy they will survive. They don't mind being frozen into the ice. Just don't let the water level drop below the root zone and you'll be fine. And no - zero chance that any marginal plant could ever make its way through a liner. The only thing you want to watch for is roots creeping OVER the liner to the outside of the pond and pushing the edge down low enough that water can leak out.

 

[Pond skipper]

Thanks for the info. Looking forward to playing in the pond next week