I don't know if you get them there but we have a tiny green caterpillar here that is the same color as the leaves and the only way I can see them is to mist with water and watch for them to wiggle. They can destroy a whole plant overnight with just one.

Now I have even more questions. 1) If there are aphids on the duckweed, and if I don't kill them, won't they just spread to other plants? 2) Can I tell if there are aphids by feeling the leaves? 3) Part of Sandy's advice was more oxygen. Given the nature of my water feature, more oxygen is one thing that I am pretty confident that it doesn't need. Overall it is about 65 feet long and has a vertical drop of about 8 ft, including two waterfalls. I haven't fertilized the water lilies in about a month. However, over the weekend the string algae grew like crazy. Doesn't that indicate that there are plenty of nutrients in the water? 4) Lefd05 mentioned a weather change. I'm in Boulder, CO. The weather has cooled off a bit. Now it is in the mid-80s to low-90s. Also, we have finally started to get some rain. I haven't checked the water temperature in a few days, however, I doubt that it has dropped more than a couple of degrees. 5) I introduced the water hyacinths 3 weeks ago. I bought them at a large, local nursery. I am suspect that they may have brought this problem with them. Sound reasonable? It sounds like I have some homework assignments. At lunchtime, I am going to look at the duckweed in the pond where I got mine originally. I want to see if its color is different from what is in my pond, or perhaps I am just imagining things. I will try to take and post photos tonight. I need to carefully inspect some of the diseased leaves. Anything else?

Hello, everyone. I'm a newbie, both to this forum and to gardening. With a little help from E B Stone, I was able to grow a beautiful container of nasturtiums. Before I could wipe the smirk from my mouth, however, I noticed that there were millions (exaggeration?) of little black bugs (I have looked at them under a magnifier and they have little legs, some move, but most seem to be piled up). They're disgusting and I bought some spray that I was told would get rid of them but it didn't seem to work, so tonight in a fit of exasperation, I ended up shearing off the whole lot-- in other words, the nasturtium is essentially no more. Where did I go wrong? I have been inspecting my little beauties every day and never noticed anything amiss. Suddenly, these parasites are everywhere!!

Hi Bobby, How cold does it get in your neck of the woods? I think its alot warmer in zone 8 than zone 5, so I would think your lotus would be fine, even in your little pond. Do you use a birdbath heater to keep it warm? One of my little ponds is only about 18" deep at most, and I've overwintered marginals in there, but I've used a birdbath heater. Lotus put their developing tubers down at the bottom of their containers, so unless your little pond froze solid, I'd think it would be fine there. I've "buried" my lotus in different spots. One year, I tried to put in a bog, and I filled it with peat and very loose soil. It was too shady for bog plants, so that's where I bury a lotus and a lily. I dig it out (which is easy, since the soil is so light.) I put the containers down so that the top of their soil is about 4-6" from ground level, cover them with loose soil and a piece of hardware coth (wire that keeps mice out and makes it a little easier to excavate them in the spring), Then I cover the whole thing with about a foot of leaves. I used to put a tarp over them, but they really do need to stay moist through the winter too, so rain is good for them, plus ventilation. If you have a very dry winter, you need to water them occasionally. One year, I had more lotus than I had space for in that area, so I started digging holes right up next to the house (protected north side). Those containers sometimes ended up being a little above ground. But I cover them heavily with leaves and a plastic tub with a tarp over it. I think the warmth of the house helps them get through a bad winter. I've "buried" marginals and lilies with good luck too. Its a great alternative for those of us who don't have basements/garages/big ponds. I even overwintered a sage plant in a container by burying it! About the ones you grew from seed a few months ago......how big are the containers? I would definitely leave them in their containers. Early spring would be the best time to move them to a bigger container. I'm not sure they'd have much tuber yet. What kind of lotus do you have?