Please recommend a plant for me.

[Faebinder]

I have made a fish cave in my pond from bricks. The water level is only a few inches above the cave. The roof of the cave is 7" x 3.5". I dont want predators to be able to step on it and go to the pond, so I was going to take advantage of that cave roof and place a plant on there that will also help with filtration.

I live in Pennsylvania and my zone is 6b.

I don't care about flowers although I will admit that would be nice to have coming out of the pond. My biggest care is for it to survive the winter in the pond.

Web links to where I can get your recommendations are much appreciated. I dont mind buying online.

 

[peter hillman]

We like Hyacinths, they don't do winter, but they're cheap enough to just buy a bunch in the spring and toss em in fall.

 

[addy1]

Iris, creeping Jenny, penny wart, bog bean.......a lot of pond plants have shallow roots and will do fine over your winter. I am 6b they do fine in my pond.put them in a shallow container, like a oil pan, make sure it is low enough to allow water in, or drill some holes in the side of the pot. .
I would use a tall plant, I made a nice floating island with low plants the heron landed on it and tried to have dinner. No more island.

 

[Smaug]

We like Hyacinths, they don't do winter, but they're cheap enough to just buy a bunch in the spring and toss em in fall.

My koi eat those in a day or so.

 

[Faebinder]

I saw pictures of some nice flowers of irises, I'm gonna give Irises a shot.

Thank you.

 

[Linus_Cello]

irises are good in that they can take part sun. If you have full sun, you could consider in addition pitcher plants.

 

[cas]

I saw pictures of some nice flowers of irises, I'm gonna give Irises a shot.

Just a note - 'flag irises' are the irises which can be totally submerged in water. Yellow flag iris have larger flowers, but can get quite tall and fall over. Blue flag iris have smaller flowers and don't get as tall. I have replace my yellow flag with blue flag and I am not having problems with them toppling over now. You can see the difference in the height in the pictures below.

 

[Faebinder]

Just a note - 'flag irises' are the irises which can be totally submerged in water. Yellow flag iris have larger flowers, but can get quite tall and fall over. Blue flag iris have smaller flowers and don't get as tall. I have replace my yellow flag with blue flag and I am not having problems with them toppling over now. You can see the difference in the height in the pictures below.

View attachment 88516

Good information. I'll get the blues.

 

[HARO]

Good information. I'll get the blues.

A lot of us do in the winter! And BTW, I've seen the yellow irises reach 6' in height. Kinda overpowering!
John

 

[Faebinder]

Thank you for your help everyone.

Can anyone point me out to a good container for the iris? I made a fish cave from bricks and the iris will be sitting on top of the cave. So I was gonna put it in container. I was trying to brain storm how to make the water go through the plant.

Would a regular pot with a hole at the bottom work? Hope the soil doesn't leak out into the pond.

 

[Lisak1]

You can plant directly into a standard plastic nursery pot and submerge that in your pond. Most of them have multiple holes around the bottom edge. The dirt will stay in the pot as long as you don't tip it over - and at a certain point, the plant will grow so big that you wouldn't be able to get the dirt out even if you wanted to. Your plant will be able to get water through the holes in the pot, and you will find that the roots will find their way out of the holes into the water.

You can also buy pond plant bags that would work great for this situation - they are flexible and malleable so they can easily fit into any kind of spot. You don't even need dirt - fill with gravel, or kitty litter or a combination of both and plant your irises in the bag. They will eventually outgrow the bag, but that's OK - at that point you can easily cut the bag off and divide your plant into two or more plants - and the fun continues.

You can also plant irises directly into the pond. Did you mention how deep the water will be over the top of your cave? One idea would be to build a "planter" out of rocks or bricks - basically construct an area that will contain your plant. Fill this area with some gravel, plop the plant into the "planter", cover the roots with more stone and rocks (enough to keep it in place and hold it upright - it's really more art than science at this point) and let it grow. No dirt required. You could literally accomplish this with two or three softball sized rocks - anything that creates a "pocket" to hold the gravel in place can act as a planter. You just want to make sure your plant is in the pond at the same height that it was in the pot - in other words, the part that was buried in the pot can be under water, the part that was above the dirt in the pot should be above the water. The advantage of the plant growing directly in the pond is that it contributes to keeping your pond clean. And "naturalizing" the plants this way, I have found, increases the likelihood that they will come back the next year.

 

[Faebinder]

You can plant directly into a standard plastic nursery pot and submerge that in your pond. Most of them have multiple holes around the bottom edge. The dirt will stay in the pot as long as you don't tip it over - and at a certain point, the plant will grow so big that you wouldn't be able to get the dirt out even if you wanted to. Your plant will be able to get water through the holes in the pot, and you will find that the roots will find their way out of the holes into the water.

You can also buy pond plant bags that would work great for this situation - they are flexible and malleable so they can easily fit into any kind of spot. You don't even need dirt - fill with gravel, or kitty litter or a combination of both and plant your irises in the bag. They will eventually outgrow the bag, but that's OK - at that point you can easily cut the bag off and divide your plant into two or more plants - and the fun continues.

You can also plant irises directly into the pond. Did you mention how deep the water will be over the top of your cave? One idea would be to build a "planter" out of rocks or bricks - basically construct an area that will contain your plant. Fill this area with some gravel, plop the plant into the "planter", cover the roots with more stone and rocks (enough to keep it in place and hold it upright - it's really more art than science at this point) and let it grow. No dirt required. You could literally accomplish this with two or three softball sized rocks - anything that creates a "pocket" to hold the gravel in place can act as a planter. You just want to make sure your plant is in the pond at the same height that it was in the pot - in other words, the part that was buried in the pot can be under water, the part that was above the dirt in the pot should be above the water. The advantage of the plant growing directly in the pond is that it contributes to keeping your pond clean. And "naturalizing" the plants this way, I have found, increases the likelihood that they will come back the next year.

Awesome quick reply thank you.

The water above the cave is only a couple of inches. I could make the cave smaller and gain 3 inches more. I like the idea of having bricks make the containment of the plant actually but I'm gonna need to find "thinner" bricks or make the cave top larger. A bog plant bag may be the way... I'm gonna google where I can buy some online.

Reason I don't have it planted in the pond, is that the intention of the plant is to cover the cave so predators don't abuse the cave top. I'm tight on space in the pond till I make it deeper this spring.

 

[addy1]

Take a look at the bog bean, low growing plant with neat white flowers, survives the winter just fine. Shallow rooted.

 

[Faebinder]

ok went online and bouht a blue flag iris and a bog bean, plus two bags for bog plants. Should be interesting. I have space for a second plant on top of the falls so we'll see.

 

[addy1]

The bog bean will take a season to get going good, so be patient. Creeping jenny, a ground plant, does well in the pond also, shallow planted in litter or dirt.