Very shallow zone 5 water plants

[gimpy]

I'm looking for suggestions for very small and short, very cold, zone 5 (if possible) water plants. I have a very small water feature, recently turned into a very small, shallow (normally about 5 inches deep), narrow fish pond. It's max length is about 6 feet and max width about a foot and a half. (it was/is a rock pond completely filled with river rock, then water added to fill in, along with a large drilled rock for the water to pump out for a little fountain look. I kind of opened up space for the water depth.

The large wet rock is where the water comes out for the fountain look, only shoots out about 5 or 6 inches and the large dry square looking rock sits on top of the pond pump and filter. (in the picture)


There are, at least four little feeder fish (rosy red barbs) that did survive over wintering this year. These little fish don't show themselves very much, so trying (hoping to get them out more) to maybe get them to come out more?

When I completely fill the pond with water, it's depth is about 9 to 10 inches in depth at its deepest point (just below the big wet rock in the picture), but that drains down within a few hours to the 4 to 5 inch depth and sort of stabilizes at that depth.


Thx.

 

[Lisak1]

Wow! In zone 5 I'm SHOCKED those fish survived!

Pretty much any hardy marginal will survive in that amount of water - most need only 2 or 3 inches actually. Small might be a challenge as most plants, given the chance, will spread. You could try some ground covers that will grow outside of the pond and creep inward.

 

[gimpy]

Thx, for your reply. Flagstaff (where I live) is mostly in zone 5b and does go to zone 6a (I might actually be in the latter zone). I'm at 7000 feet elevation and we average maybe 90 inches of snow yearly.

I've been doing some googling. I will check for "marginal" plants.

Yes, I was very surprised to see that they had survived the winter in my little bit of water pond . I will try to deepen it later in the week, if I can (maybe 3 or 4 inches).

Thx, again

 

[gimpy]

Thx, again. I've been doing a lot of online looking and reading. I know that my pond is really just a shallow outdoor size aquarium, and that I will probably not find exactly what I want for the "pond", but, I will try some of the more likely plants that I've read about, hopefully something that will do OK for the spring and summer. I'm very encouraged by the fish that survived the winter. It gives me hope.
Thx, again

 

[addy1]

My sister lives in Flagstaff, a bit out of the main town. I went to school there also. Neat little town, well it was little when I was there.

Try water willow, 12 inches tall, real pretty lilac flowers for most of the summer.
Creeping jenny stays low to the ground and likes wet, might need a bit of dirt for the roots.

 

[Lisak1]

might need a bit of dirt for the roots.

That's kind of what I was thinking - with a pond that small, you really want to plant outside or on the very edges of the pond. Marginals that creep in would be pretty!

 

[gimpy]

I have been reading about the creeping Jenny and think it will do nicely. I will also read up on the water willow. Thx, for your answers, both of you. I really appreciate it.
O. T. - - my wife and I moved to Flag in the mid 80's. Love it here.

 

[gimpy]

Just as a quick update. I did remove about 4 wheel barrel loads of river rock, mostly from the sides and a little from the bottom. That seemed to open the pond up quite a little bit. It gives it more surface area.



It has taken me several hours of looking, over the last week or so, to find an online plant dealer that will ship me what I want (hopefully)(a single plant each of creeping Jenny and anacharis-I wanted a water willow but didn't find one at the place I ordered). Every where I looked wanted to ship them in minimum 3 bunches or so, which will be way too much for the little pond, if they all live.
I just ordered them about 30 minutes ago. Don't know when they will ship.

 

[gimpy]

Well, today I ordered, for curb side pickup from Pet Smart, a couple little items (stress coat - the one I have is almost empty, a real small, 4 inch- they didn't have a bigger one-fish net to pick out debris, and some frozen brine shrimp for the fish). I took my 9 year old grand daughter with me to pick it up and run a couple quick errands.

Once we got there, she wanted to go inside and look at things (fish) . I couldn't say no, so we put on our little Corona virus masks and went inside. While looking at some fish and waiting for our order, I saw a tank with small "cold water" plants in it. They had a horn wort plant in it which I did buy. I don't know if that is the best for the shallow pond, but I "had " to buy it. With my g-daughters help, it's now sitting in the deepest (9 inches or so) part of the little pond. I'm still waiting on confirmation of shipping for the anacharis and Creeping Jenny (it's been about a week - the web site said normally ships in 8 to 14 days - been 7).

Some of the rock is getting a green tint/film (with small bubbles on it) and I want to hopefully get something started to help keep algae in check.

Just a quick (well, rambling) update on the plants.
Thx