Two problems: winter protection and in the case of the dwarf papyrus taking over the entire pond.

I was about to post in this topic as well and hope you don't mind if I piggyback my questions. I currently have Calla, impatiens, alternathera, parrot's feather and some small hostas in pots on my top shelf.
Do you start the taro & calla tubers in pots then wash off the dirt as mentioned above?...or just 'plunk' the tuber/bulb in surrounded by rocks?
Likewise, with the impatiens and alternathera...just wash the soil off and try to spread out the roots anchoring w rock? Thanks for letting me 'tag on' to this post.
Will

Piggyback all you want. That way I can learn more too. I have 4 taro, and as an experiment, I planted one bareroot. I washed off the dirt, and set river rocks on top of the roots, and then added larger rocks (fist sized) for extra anchoring to keep standing. We will see.

I plant most of my stuff bareroot, but if you want to pull it for the winter or it dies it can make an awful mess when you pull it out if it is bareroot. Even tho there is no dirt you will still be getting sludge buildup under the rocks. Bareroot plants will have more roots than a potted plant and you will be stirring stuff up for quite a distance pulling those roots out. I leave everything in the pots for the first year and plant it bare root if it survives the winter.

I plant everything bareroot - some Iris, dragon tail, lillies, pickeral rush some type of bamboo looking plant,
water mint, a yellow flowered plant, and a few others have survied the winter here in North Atlanta, Ga - the annuals of course don't make it. There are a couple of grass type of plants that also survived.

The dragon's tail is doing extremely well - broke off the bulbs and planted them in several places. Several of the bulbs had actually sat above the water line all winter nd still grew this year.

All of my pond plants are either bare root in the pond or in mesh pots of gravel. The only exceptions are waterlilies and iris which are in clay garden soil. I did not have good luck with them in gravel. None of mine require winter protection though. Anything tropical I keep in my greenhouse.

I would like to grow bareroot. I have 2 of the taros bareroot and 2 in pots. I will see which do better. As for winter care: As I am in zone 7, I've had several 'in the garden dirt' plants that were tender and they made it through winter. One was a Mandevilla, which was amazing.

That said, I don't know if the plants I do have will make it through winter in the pond. What would you recommend?

I have:
Water Lettuce
Water Hyanciths
Dwarf Papyrus
Water Pennywort
4 different Taros

If I do pull them out, how do I overwinter them? In bags of peat or sawdust, or pots? Do I water them or allow to dry out?

Try the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Search results for wintering taro, etc.

for the past couple of years, I've let a light frost nip the colocasia leaves then cut back leaving @ 6" of stem. I put them in the garage just in case of a hard freeze to dry out a bit(most were in tubs in either the pond or biofilter) then down into my cool basement. Like my brugs I moisten the soil monthly til its time to 'wake them up, usually April here in Z4b. I then keep them moist and under lights until the first leaves make an appearance then into my pop up greenhouse or a bright window til past frost danger. They've all come through well and I had to divide pups, even giving started pups away at spring swaps.
Will

Thank you, everyone.

Hi,
The pennywort should be hardy for you. The dwarf papyrus I am not sure but it did make it through the winter up here for me just barely. The crown was below water level a couple inches so it was protected by the heater in the pond. It has not recovered yet from the temp variations after I turned the heater off. This was a miserable spring

Papyrus, water lettuce, water hyacinth and taro are tropical plants. None of them are safe outdoors here in my zone 8 location. I would not think they would survive in 7.

A heated pond isn't a true test of hardiness.

Harder to bring them indoors for the winter if they are bare root in the pond. You could break off sections though and let the main plant take it's chances.

I am in zone 7 like Hardin but, Pacific Northwest. Someone suggested and I tried to overwinter my lettuce and hyacinths indoors. Failed miserably. They really do like warm weather and full sun. (lettuces a little less sun) It's a good thing they multiply and are cheap.

BSF, how did you try to overwinter WL and WH? I might try to see if I can when the time comes. I will probably not succeed either, but will try. I am doing good to even get the WL and WH to multiply in the pond. I have less WL and the same amount of WH as I did when I put them in almost a month ago. Are they slow about deciding if they like my pond? LOL. They are getting FULL sun and we are running in the 100's this week.

Your zone will make a difference in what winters over. I live in Utah, and am in zone 5. Winters here can get down to 0 degrees.

I've planted bareroot -- just sticking the washed off roots between rocks -- chameleon plant, penny wart, and another fern-like plant, as well as iris. All of these have successfully wintered over for the past 4 years. And the chameleon plant pleasantly surprised me this spring by producing white flowers. Looks very pretty in the streams leading to the pond.

Each spring I've bare root planted impatiens, as well as the standard water lettuce and water hyacinths, and this year, I'm trying coleus.

Be sure to try bare root planting of watercress (buy it from the grocery store). It's fun to watch it grow and spread in the streams. Watercress does best in water that is more still. If you live in a zone that doesn't get much winter, watercress might take over, but here in Utah that doesn't happen.

I'm convinced you can successfully experiment with many, many plants, and get a wide variety of looks using the bare root approach -- for both annuals and perennials.

Hi,
I learnt something new about water cress yesterday. The sparrows absolutely love the seeds. It has been blooming like crazy for me and yesterday the sparrows got into it and tore it to shreds. Between the plant bits and the waste the sparrows left it took a while to clean up. I will be deadheading it going forward. This is the first year I got it early enough for it to bloom so much, there must have been 50 birds in there trying to get their bit.

I have a heated pond in my heated greenhouse and water hyacinths and water lettuce both die anyway during winter. I can't afford halide lights to keep them alive when they are easily shipped by pond friends in warmer climates....

I have parrot's feather, golden club, water celery, pickeral, equisetum, dwarf equisetum, marsh marigold, aquatic forget me not, black flowering rush, slender rush, dwarf water bamboo, acorus, and probably more I can't think of off the top of my head growing bare root in rocks or mesh pots of pea gravel in my ponds.

Everything I have in my pond is bare rooted. My lilies are planted in gravel, umbrella grass, taro, iris, water celery, pennywort, everything. I have planted them in dirt or clay only to have them fall over and spill the dirt into the pond and just basically leave a mess. Of course sometimes I end up with spilled gravel also but not nearly as often.

Several years ago I covered my pond with a piece of lattice and covered it with 8ml plastic and put a lightweigh plastic yard chair underneith for a "tent" effect. I left a few spots open for breathing room. Every so often I would peel it back to make sure everyone was ok under there. I had a hyacinth with greenery on it up until the last week in March. I think I took it off on a colder day and it got bitten :(
I had tadpoles very early that year.. Lilly blooms too. I thought it was a cool experiment.

Coleus: mine are doing great, the dragon;'s tail are about 3' and doning great, of course, the impatiens are super, the horsetail rush is now about 3' tall.

all plants, except the horsetail and dragon's tail are planted bareroot with a wrapping of batting and I've included a job flowering plant spike, wither 1/2 or whole spike within each of the plant's batting and then all are either in a large batting island or an island with gravel -use the gravel to hold them upright. The horsetail rush and Dragon's tail are mostly in a batting base, again with some gravel for support and they have a job spike within the island container.

when I made the floating island containers(oil change pans), all was well, now that the dragon's tail are about 3' = the floatation needs to be increased and I had to remove the gravel to lighten the load. This did teach me an interesting point - when planted in the batting, you can remove the plant and it's batting as a unit and either replant or whatever - no mess afterwards - Amen.

Thanks for all the responses. I will do some experimenting like all of you have. It will be a trial and error thing just like 'dirt gardening' was when I became a gardener of all things. Having a pond is one of the coolest things I have ever done and having all the experts is awesome.
Living in zone 7, you never know if something will make it or take over. I have been a little hesitant to go overboard, as I don't want to find myself invaded by wild plants and be needing a machete to get to the pond.
Re: Water cress. I looked around in Wal-mart in the produce section and could not find any. Am I looking in the right place?

Yes...sometimes if you ask they will know where it is. That is the right section though.

You are right, Oklahoma is tricky since we are very much between HOT south and COLDer northern areas.

I've tried iris bareroot and in clay soil. The bareroot plants grew but did not flower. Iris in pots flowers every year but also needs dividing every year. I do it after plant has flowered. The only plants I bareroot plant are parrot's feather. All other's are in pots so that I can move them around easily and add fertilizer tabs. Some plants can be quite invasive if not contained in pots like cattails and water poppy. I don't have cattails as they didn't overwinter. My water poppy I overwinter in the pond and even though it was in a pot I have new plants--one just amongs the rocks where the pot was last year and another one sprung up in the same pot as sweet flag. I have bog bean which I really like--also in pots as it sends out runners so I think it could be invasive as well. I'm trying a black taro this year--also in a pot as must bring indoors for winter. The research I did on this plant said that it does better if the crown of the plant is only under about an inch of water.