Pond in Southern Illinois

[CountryEscape]

Some of my plants are suffering from the heat here, and T'Mann is not very farm west of me, but he has tons of HUGE trees, so he has lots of shade. In years like this year, where it's been so darn hot, that is a blessing for the plants. Your plants do look wonderful, Todd! Great photos of all!!!

 

[Sheetmetalman]

Heres a picture of my Elephant ear planted in between the Skippy filter and my waterfall-happy with the way its grew thru the drought blasted summer heat that we've had here in Illinois.

 

[CountryEscape]

OMG, Tim, that's huge! I must not have the large type of elephant ears, as all of mine are very small in comparison to others. Or, my conditions and water and so forth are not as favorable to the plant. That sucker sure liked where you put it!

 

[addy1]

Mine are small compared to last year, just now growing and cool down is coming lol. That is a beautiful plant Tim.

 

[sissy]

mine grew great this year but still not as big as last year ,some of them are new bulbs though.this is the first year for my black ones outside and combined them with the green ones they really look nice

 

[Sheetmetalman]

Thanks everybody

 

[CountryEscape]

I really like how you put a green one and a black one together, Sissy! Great contrast! Mine are very tiny in comparison to you guys' though. My black one from last year is still only maybe 12" tall. Maybe I need to put them in the ground instead of in the bog next year!

 

[addy1]

I really like how you put a green one and a black one together, Sissy! Great contrast! Mine are very tiny in comparison to you guys' though. My black one from last year is still only maybe 12" tall. Maybe I need to put them in the ground instead of in the bog next year!

I have some in the pond, bog and in a large pot on the deck, none are doing as good as they did last year. The ones in the pond are growing the best, around 2 feet tall, black, black and green and green. Last year they hit almost 4 feet.

 

[koiguy1969]

IMPRESSIVE!

 

[sissy]

I got a red stemmed one for next year but I am still babying it in the pot and will try mixing 3 colors next year .Remember it takes a couple of years before they get giant sized .The longer you have it the bigger it will get .I lost a lot of mine in the 2010 winter and had to start with some new ones .I do nothing with mine except mulch them in for the heat here so I don't have to water as much .I did buy mini ones from florida hill nursery .com and got the red stemmed one but don't want to get my hopes up yet and jinx it .

 

[CountryEscape]

Oh, well my little black taros are only in their second year, and were small to begin with. I think they are maybe some mini type, too. I'll be bringing in all 3 of them, as I bought 2 more this year. I have one larger one that I wintered over in the basement last year. Thinking they can go in the kiddie pool in the basement with flourescent light above them this year. Thinking I will have a greenhouse in the basement before spring arrives next year! Not going to bring in any other pond plants, except the tropical lilies. All other bog plants are hardies, or I don't care if they die. LOL Brought in the umbrella palm, and agree that trying to bring in that huge plant was stupid. It did make it enough to make a small plant, but this year if I bring in any of it, I'll just cut off a start of it and bring that in instead of trying to save the huge thing. They have VERY large deep roots. Last year my one little plant, bought in a 4" pot, had overgrown the pot and was barely small enough to fit into a 5 gallon bucket! Learning as I go ...

 

[addy1]

The taros I saved over from last summer where huge last summer, this summer they stayed smaller, just now growing larger as fall comes. The ones in the pond are growing the best. I have the black (dark purple) the green and purple, the green and a few variations of green, different leaf patterns.

 

[sissy]

the bigger and older the bulb is the bigger the plant is .I still like the mini ones I think there cute .I got a lot of the dark canna's this year also .

 

[Sheetmetalman]

A few fish pics--may have to pitch my old camera-lot of the colors where way off--I took 65 pics and most looked like crap. Speaking of crap my no-name waterfall pump I got off of Ebay last year crapped out last week so Ive been waiting for a replacement to get here-waterfall looks strange with no water flowing. Went to Altamont today and picked up my new albino channel catfish today. I bought 11 that are about 5 inches long--they will be 3 times longer this time next year. That brings my total albino cats to 16. The biggest I bought late last year when he was about 3 inches long--now he's about 10 inches long. He grew a lot faster than my Koi and when I feed them he pushes the bigger ones around, strange because he ignores all the smaller fish--I guess its a domination thing--wants to show who's boss.

 

[j.w]

Neat looking catfish and I see what you mean about your camera but the colors look fine in them but notice the lines in your photo's. They have some nice camera's out there now.