Plant Power

[Lisak1]

I remember the years when my water hyacinths use to multiply like that. Now I'm lucky if they multiply at all.

It's the gardener's life... you start to really think you know what you're doing and Mother Nature is like "Not.So.Fast".

@GBBUDD - we did have above average heat this summer, but the weird thing is it didn't FEEL like it. It just felt like... summer. I wonder if the average was pushed up by warmer nights. We had well spaced rainfall all summer which is always welcome. Things stayed really lush all summer long. Typically by mid-August we can quit mowing the lawn for a month to six weeks. Not this year. Maybe that's why it never felt overly hot - nothing looked like it was baked and crispy!

One thing I did notice when I was pulling my hyacinths out of the pond and pondless - the ones that were able actually get their roots into the substrate did waaaaay better than the ones that just free floated in the pond. I had to give them a good yank to get them out. Things tend to float right out of the pond so we have to put them in places where they will stay anchored, and this year those that were tucked behind rocks to hold them in place and in just a few inches of water did great and were the ones that bloomed for me. So my suggestion would be to put them where they can "touch bottom" and where they stay densely packed. (Now prepare next year for me to report that I couldn't even get the darn things to survive!)

 

[BKHpondcritters]

Any water hyacinth that I put in the main pond gets stunted because the fish eat the roots. Mine thrive in the upper (fishless) pool in about 4 - 6" of water. When I have to weed them out during the summer I toss a few down for the fish to have their way with, & those ones really don't multiply at all. This is what they currently look like up top you can see them on the back side of the island (and I didn't even put them in until July!) They've been thinned a bit three times so far (iirc) since then.

three

 

[poconojoe]

The water lettuce and water hyacinth almost completely covered the surface of my pond this year. The only two place kept open is where my two air stones are bubbling.
Some years they won't even grow. Some years they take over.

 

[addy1]

I let the lilies do the surface coverage.

 

[GBBUDD]

i love water lettuce when it floats by the light sand the long roots almost look like they are dancing as the current pushes them along it's quite magical. In the same breath the hyacins when they bloom are similar above the water

 

[Gemma]

I remember the years when my water hyacinths use to multiply like that. Now I'm lucky if they multiply at all.

Mine usually do well, but not this year! This year they multiplied a lot, but didn't grow tall and didn't bloom

 

[Lisak1]

@GBBUDD - you're a poet at heart.

@addy1 - you're just showing off now! Your lilies remind me of Monet's garden - so prolific. How many individual plants would you say are in your big pond?

I took the patio pond apart for the season today and found this:

Just one long root mass growing out of the bottom of a fabric pot that I had planted with a variety of plants.

And yes. I was working in the rain. I had to get the little fish out of the patio pond and into the big pond - they're calling for the S WORD here this weekend! GAH!

 

[GBBUDD]

@GBBUDD - you're a poet at heart.

Hey hey i can be repugnant and a poet at the same time.

Repugnant is the world health organization who finally came out today and said and i quote shut downs do not work !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[addy1]

you're just showing off now! Your lilies remind me of Monet's garden - so prolific. How many individual plants would you say are in your big pond?

I did not count but it is around 12-15 more or less. All in oil pans. A few had jumped their pots, what a pita to pull out, heavy as all heck, but being in the oil pans I could slide them along with a good yank.
I had a deer eating in one of the small ponds, inhaling the parrots feather, mouth fulls. Took a bunch of pics, must have had the settings wrong, all black lol

 

[GBBUDD]

Well we are all greatful your pond skills far out weigh your pic skills

 

[Rhonddaponda]

I let the lilies do the surface coverage. View attachment 134600View attachment 134601

 

[Rhonddaponda]

Love those lilies! Love the pond'sssss I think everybody's dream of natural beauty controlled. Well done I'm envious