I have mine rooted in rocks (no soil) in our stream that goes into the pond. Every winter I yank out all that I can, leaving just some roots. Each year it comes back very full. It takes about three months each year in the Spring to come back strong. I can't imagine it not growing unless there was some kind of contamination.

I just threw mine in the pond and let it free float and it's gone nuts.. every couple of weeks I have to yank a bunch out and toss it cause it takes over. maybe you just didn't get a hardy bunch? you could try buying another bunch and throw it in with it and see if they do better or not.
darla

My parrots feather is planted in the gravel/rocks in the bog area, and trails over into the pond itself. Mine has done pretty well, but every now and then it starts looking scrawny, so I just fertilize it. I just push a pond tab down in the gravel near the roots in the bog, and within a few days it starts looking better. If you don't want to do that, you might pull it out of the pond a soak it in a bucket of Miracle grow for a few days and see if that perks it up any.

I have parrot feather both floating & planted in a 4" pot with soil & gravel. It does OK both ways, it does need nutrients, either from the pond bottom or fertilizer. It also does better with sun. If you put salt in your water for your fish that could hurt it, but I have never had it to die. I agree with Nancym you could try the miracle grow & see what happens.
Good Luck!
Dianne

I find it odd that parrot's feather should have trouble growing. I took the gunk from weeding my pond and threw it on the compost heap. It got covered up with a foot more of garden debris and now I have a colony of parrot's feather in my compost pile.

I cut mine back because it was getting leggy, took the tips & put them into a new pot & put in pond. It's doing great, I also left the other pot in the pond with the short stems & they're coming back, too.

My parrots feather just kind of hangs out, too, not doing much. I have decided that there are enough plants to choose from, so when one plant doesn't work, I just try something else. All of my other plants are thriving, so I just let those fill in.

Well... I moved some into the waterfall area and it seems to be doing ok. I just realized that my duck weed disapeared entirely too. I haven't used any fertilizer, salt or chemicals in the pond at all. It's been doing so well with minimum interference from me that I don't want to change anything!

I may try to pull some parrot's feather and pot it up. I was going to try to overwinter some anyway. I'm sort of a "bird nut" so a plant called parrot's feather has some appeal! But if i doesn't want to grow for me I'll jsut try something else

If it doesn't grow, there is a good reason. I've never seen too many plants that are as aggressive as parrot's feather.

I've never had much luck with Parrots Feather. I threw out what I did have last fall and didn't buy any this year. Part of the problem for me was that string algae would take it over and suck it down under the water. I got fed up trying to clean it out all the time.

Mine is tucked into rocks rather than free floating or pots of dirt and I do have to fertilize it occasionally.

It was the fish!
I only have 5 comets (all under 4 inches) so I didn't think they could do much damage. But I moved the remaining parrot's feather up into the waterfall a couple of weeks ago and it looks great! So... the little fishies must have been causing the problem by nibbling all the new roots. Next year I'll try a mesh basket.

BasilB

Does anyone else get a reaction on their hands from pulling parrot feather? Yesterday I pulled excess plants out with bare hands and have a mild itching reaction. Will use gloves from now on.