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Ponds & Aquatic Plants

When do you know what made it through the winter?

14 years ago

I may be being impatient but the pond hardy lily was the first thing I saw spring to life this spring even before the land gardens were sprouting.

This is my ponds first winter so I have no idea when I can expect stuff to start sprouting again. I see the bog lily putting up growth but nothing else from the other submerged plants. I don't want them rotting so I'd like to know when they should sprout -who's a late sprouter and who should have started by now:

I have one tropical water lily (rhonda kay), some silk stockings, small taros, pickerel rush, a corkscrew rush and a dwarf bull rush ..I think that's it (other than the lilies that have already sprouted). Oh and chameleon planted in a container.

We had an oddly cold winter so the freezes may have got some of the plants. It's really warming up now (most daytime temperatures in the 70's) so the water must be starting to warm up...

Can you experienced ponders chime in? And since I am an impatient sole what is a pond plant that blooms early. I don't have much bog area as this is a raised pond so I'm looking for something that is an actual water plant)

Thanks!

Carolyn

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Comments (5)

sheepco
14 years ago
Lucky you - still mid 30's at night here. I just put new water cress in my stream (that I got up and running 10 days ago) - at least it's green. My dwarf hardy water lilies are sending up shoots. My yellow water iris is growing slowly, but is certainly an early bloomer - keep it potted, it can be invasive in warmer climates. Pickeral and bull rush are pretty hardy. Corkscrew is not here in zone 4 so I have mine inside still..........

I'm not much help here...hope someone in 7 can help. But hang in there, spring IS sprung!

S
timbersmith
14 years ago
I would think that you would be seeing new growth by now from anything that did survive - my Lotus has just started putting up its first leaves and it's my last holdout (aside from the Hibiscus, that is). My Pickerel Rush is putting out new growth, so I would think yours would be, too. Actually, my one hardy lily is even putting out flower buds already - 4 at last count (and its first leaf just reached the water's surface)!

If you kept the tropical lily and Taro in your pond over winter then I think it's safe to say that they didn't make it - Taro is supposedly hardly only to zone 9, and I've heard that tropical lilies are only good down to 60 degrees F or so.

I don't have any experience with the corkscrew or bull rush, though.

- Mike
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hardin
14 years ago
My hardy waterlily is putting up leaves, pickerel rush has sprouted and is several inches tall. The parrot feather in the bottom of the pond has green leaves that have reached the water surface. My varigated sweet flag has sprouted but is slow-growing (maybe too deep). I added WH plants to pond today. Last week my plant order arrived so I have blue rush, bog bean and water celery in and they are all sprouting new growth already. I don't know yet if my taros made it through winter. I buried them into the ground last fall, and after the rough winter, it will be iffy. Things should be taking off soon as the temps should start becoming more stable. Pond water is cooler than the air temps in my pond. We have had day temps in the 70's and nights down to mid-50's. My water is running about 60 degrees. Hope that helps.
pondmaninal
14 years ago
The hardy's are filling up the tank with pads here. T harvested the corms for the trops this past week. They will handle lower than 60 because I just moved up here from Central Florida and it got down into the 30's and 40's there and my trops came back. To taros yet. Pickerel rush and common arrowhead are coming up. The sweetflag is blooming. The blue, white, and yellow water irises are growing. The lizard tail is up and the cattails, dwarf and regular, are growing.I think one canna may be coming up but not sure yet. It is still a little early for some aquatics, so keep watching.
equinecpa
Original Author
14 years ago
I inspected a couple of the pots today...the tropical lily is showing signs of life. Yippee-I love Rhonda Kay and what I believe was the pickerel rush is growing.

I'm learning one thing from this..mark your pots- I knew waht everything was when I submerged them...but now..I have no clue. What DO you mark submerged pots with??

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