Thanks everyone for all the compliments. My floating baskets aren't doing too good this year. Don't know if it's the weather or my koi (now that they are bigger they are able to tip the basket with their body just enough to nibble. They remind me of deer they don't eat the whole plant just enough to stress it out). I heard a rumor it could be my water is too clean. Pond is in it's third year so it may be fully cycled now. Don't know if any of you read Nosambos (Lisa's) post earler this month so I am linking it to mine. She is so creative she can turn anything that floats into a planter as you can see from her post. I just love visiting her pond because I never know what she has created that is going to surprise me. I got 4 large sheets of styrofoam pads from work. They are about 3 ft long by 1 1/2 ft wide. I am planning on connecting them together with computer cable ties. I am going to try to make a large floating impatiens, watercress island out of them by cutting holes in the pads and placing punctured styrofoam cups in the holes (hopefully this will make them koi proof), then placing impatiens and watercress bare root in the styrofoam cups. It may work unless my koi decide to tip it over. (They completely destroyed one floating basket of watercress in a day). I will post pics if it does work. I am just wondering if I should surround it by pond noodles to make it more stable. Only problem will be getting it in and out of the pond. My pond is in full sun and my fish have no shade other than the floating planters you see in the post here. As they are getting bigger their shade is getting smaller. Jenny Here is a link that might be useful: Nosambos floating watercress idea

It isn't just the heat, 7% humidity I think is even worse. For a few years I've been experimenting with marginals and other plants growth in a water tight container. I've been trying to learn what works where. Cannas, Iris and tomato all slowly go down hill through summer in full sun. Pretty ugly, but alive. Much better if shaded part of the day. Too much shade and growth isn't good, few if any blooms. In a perfect world shade could be added in summer and full sun the rest of the year. Tomato was pretty worthless though. Along the line of Egyptian papyrus I've found Umbrella Palm (maybe Cyperus alternifolius or Cyperus involucratus, not sure) did super all summer in full sun. I got it out of a neighbor's yard. A surprising number of marginals are grown here in yards. Many marginals are adapted to store water for lean periods. Following that line I've been using nut sedge with very good results. Bright green, full when planted in mass, all summer full sun. It's a mondograss look alike. I'm trying mint right now and so far so good. Giant Reed, Arundo donax does great. Here some strangeness...I've been growing a several Chilean mesquite trees from seed in 5 gal buckets, clay soil, no drainage. These are watered everyday, but not to the point of standing surface water. When I've removed one from a pot there were roots down to the bottom of the bucket in standing water. Long term I assume some bacteria is going to get the upper hand, but it's been over a year and so far they're doing very well. Same for a few Fan Palms. Elephant's Food, Portulacaria afra doing well in no drainage. And it can be Bonsai. Pencil cactus, Euphorbia tirucalli, (not a real cactus) has done well no drainage. I would try any plant. Cactus is on my todo list. As McKool said, crown above water level for marginals is best, but really true for these non-marginals. And I can't expect these are always going to do great, rot is an issue. But if I can get some good years out of them I'm going for it. Gardening here is like being on another planet. I threw away my Sunset Western Gardener book which I relied on in San Jose CA.

Arlene... I couldn't help but notice, you said your pond is about 17' x 40' and about 1,500 gallons. In case it comes up in the future regarding actual volumm (ordering chemicals or ?) but an area of water 17' x 40' at 1" depth is 424 gallons of water. An average depth of 18" would equal 7,632 gallons. I expect you have a bit more water there than you would think. You mentioned you have grass around the pond. If any ferilizer is used for the grass there is a high probability that the fertilizer had made it into the pond. The same ferilizer you want to make the grass grow will REALLY make the algae grow! Not knowing for sure your situation this a just a possibility. As mentioned above, your best bet is floating plants, hyacinths and lettus are great filter plants that will propagate VERY quickly. Not sure what area you are in but in some areas they are controled because they can progagate TO quickly. Good luck JJ

Algae grows fast in a pond that doesn't have much surface covered with plants. You have a lot of iris--don't buy anymore as they multiply like crazy! Don't know how long your season is but you could probably have at least two hardy lilies in your pond depending on the variety. I have 6 in my pond which is 18ft long by about 7 ft wide and overwintered them in the pond and the sc last year. Deepest point on my pond is about 4 ft and it gets very cold for a very long time here in the winter. They all survived. Have never had much luck with hyacinth or water lettuce and I don't like how the hyacinth goes brown. I would think if you are going to overwinter it you'd need grow lights of some sort. I've had alot of string algae this year too but I just go along the edges and pull it out and about every two weeks put on the hip waders to get the stuff that's wrapped around the lilies. Have had to clean the leaf trap before my pump several times this year due to the increased algae from the hot weather we had last month. Some people use an UV light for algae but I never have but don't have the green soup algae. I look at it as a sign of a healthy pond--algae doesn't grow if there isn't nutrients for it so...If it's driving you crazy use the toilet brush, feed your fish less and get some plants for surface coverage. Good luck. Patti