Over wintering pond plants, some of the common ones

[sissy]

Well we had a frost this morning finally .But it did not harm the plants around or in the pond .

 

[j.w]

Hey sissy I see your cute doggies kissing avatar now

 

[Fishylove]

Awww so cute!!

 

[Fishylove]

I got a bunch of plants in the ground so far, but still have the two trees and a coupe dozen more plants. Most of which could probably be split, think I should do that now; put them in separate pots and then put them in the ground? Or wait till spring to split them? Or maybe I'll just split them, and put em back in the same pot and put them in the ground.

 

[addy1]

I would split in the spring, don't stress the plant as cold comes. I have split beginning of winter, but not the best for the plant.

 

[Fishylove]

Okie dokie Will do

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes, plant's that are hardy and you plan on leaving out all winter, best not to disturb them till spring. I do all my "hacking and slashing" of hardy pond plants in the very early spring, expecially if you have very cold winters, or if the plant is not hardy to your zone.

If you have tropicals of plants that are going to brought inside for the winter, it is best to "hack and slash" them now, like the Unbrella palm. I would cut that thing down very good now, just leave a few new small shoots. Then I would drown the pot at the bottom of ice cold water for a few days, just to kill the bugs off, otherwise the bugs get really bad. Better yet, find a "clone" a plant shoot from the tops of Unbrella palm, that fall into the water and sprout a "clone".
* clone is an exact DNA copy of the mother plant, which plants do quite well.
*seeds, (new DNA) from the unbrella palms take forever to grow, and then they come up looking like grass at first, but the clone of the unbrella palm will look just like the mother plant right away. Unbrella palms also can grow "out of control" in just one season, so best to not drag large overgrown bug infested thing in house. * They tend to get very small bugs that you may not even notice are there, like spider mites, until they spread to the rest of your house plants. I used to make hundreds of these plants at this green house years ago...

Any questions?

 

[CountryEscape]

Well, I'm getting some plants coming in the mail that will go in the basement, so maybe I will get a start of the umbrella palm after all. I'm sure not going to try to pull the whole plant again. But, I think I asked this before, but not sure I got an answer. The root ball of the umbrella palm is more than a 5 gal bucket in diameter. If I only take a small shoot of it, do I leave the rest in the pea gravel, and will it rot and go away, or is it best to pull it out now so not as much rots in the pond? Which would be best?

 

[callingcolleen1]

Get rid of the rest of that plant now, as it will die and not come back when frozen hard and be a dead stinky mess come spring.

 

[Jeanie master]

Very well done addy and very good info

DTTO

 

[EricV]

Thanks for resurrecting this, Jeanie. So if I understand this if a plant is hardy in my zone, just leave it even if it is marginal water that will freeze? The exceptions are lilies and lotus which should be moved down so they don't freeze?

 

[Jeanie master]

Yes, plant's that are hardy and you plan on leaving out all winter, best not to disturb them till spring. I do all my "hacking and slashing" of hardy pond plants in the very early spring, expecially if you have very cold winters, or if the plant is not hardy to your zone.

If you have tropicals of plants that are going to brought inside for the winter, it is best to "hack and slash" them now, like the Unbrella palm. I would cut that thing down very good now, just leave a few new small shoots. Then I would drown the pot at the bottom of ice cold water for a few days, just to kill the bugs off, otherwise the bugs get really bad. Better yet, find a "clone" a plant shoot from the tops of Unbrella palm, that fall into the water and sprout a "clone".
* clone is an exact DNA copy of the mother plant, which plants do quite well.
*seeds, (new DNA) from the unbrella palms take forever to grow, and then they come up looking like grass at first, but the clone of the unbrella palm will look just like the mother plant right away. Unbrella palms also can grow "out of control" in just one season, so best to not drag large overgrown bug infested thing in house. * They tend to get very small bugs that you may not even notice are there, like spider mites, until they spread to the rest of your house plants. I used to make hundreds of these plants at this green house years ago...

Any questions?

I wonder if for storage over winter, if you could UT a teaspoon of clorox in the water to help control the bugs. It would be gone by Spring and you could give a good wash off before putting back in the pond, Just a thought.

 

[mrsclem]

I tried several years ago to bring in tropical bog plants. Kept them in a small pond in the basement with a grow light. They completely rotted. Now I only winter over tropical lily in an aquarium.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I wonder if for storage over winter, if you could UT a teaspoon of clorox in the water to help control the bugs. It would be gone by Spring and you could give a good wash off before putting back in the pond, Just a thought.

Never used that, and my plants and fish all very healthy. I like my plants to be natural and naturally have good bugs like Dragon flies, even if they eat most of the baby fish. Food population control!

 

[Lisak1]

So if I understand this if a plant is hardy in my zone, just leave it even if it is marginal water that will freeze?

All of our marginals are naturalized in the pond - no more potted plants to contend with every year. We did learn (the hard way, naturally!) that the water needs to stay at the normal level in the pond when it ices over. The first year we shut the waterfall off and, because of our pond design, the water level drops about 5 or 6 inches. All of our marginals were then exposed to the air. I figured "freezing water, freezing air - what's the difference?" Well, there is a definite difference! Every one of our marginals died that year. The following year we decided to leave the waterfall on all winter (for a variety of reasons) and learned as a happy consequence that all the marginals not only survived, but thrived over two of the harshest winters we have had in recent memory. Lesson learned!

Last year I also left all my lily pots right where they are in the pond - I had been dropping them to the lowest level. But as our koi got bigger I started to feel like the pots were taking up so much real estate in the bottom of the pond that there wasn't as much room for the fish. So I decided to leave the pots where they were and surprise! The lilies did great.

The message here - I am a lazy gardener. The less work I have to do every year the happier I am!