I'd like to plant flowering plants around the edges of my ponds- we have 6 ranging in size from large swimming pool sized to 3/4 acre. All are either natural or manmade with a dam. No liners. Bordered on the downhill side by natural cypress swamp in most cases. I'm in the Florida panhandle. Soil is very sandy and tends to be neutral to acidic. Some areas are full or maybe 3/4 sun, ranging from that to almost full shade.

I've planted Louisiana swamp iris and they lived for a year or two then disappeared. I was thinking about Cannas, I know they like wet feet. Water lillies are out of the question as they would take over, and Cattails are also not an option as their root systems can compromise the type of dams my ponds are built from.

I really want to put plants I can plant and largely forget- just let them spread along the margins of the pond and do their own thing. If they will tolerate seasonal mowing- even better.

These ponds are all "fish ponds" as we call them- they contain native Bream, Bluegill, Largemouth Bass, Shellcracker, etc... we keep the fish fed, and we occasionally fish in them for a fried fish dinner, and my husband is an avid angler who regularly does fish-and-release for bass. The largest pond, which is in the yard near the house, also has a pair of Florida Softshell turtles living in it. So I'm really looking for native species that will flourish, or if it's not native, it won't be invasive and take over my property.