Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum'? This post was edited by saltcedar on Tue, Mar 25, 14 at 15:34

It's still flooded, Rob, but the worst is over. One aunt did get weeks of water in her basement, two aunts and two uncles are still evacuated, but the sandbags held. (Of course they'll have to replace sheetrock and cabinets when they do go back.) My parents will FINALLY close on the sale of my childhood home tomorrow. (Turns out no bank will write a mortgage on a property with a 3-foot wall of sandbags around it --- but the new people have been paying rent in the interim.) Sometimes all it takes is a bigger tragedy to put things into perspective. We got that in the form of my 61 year old aunt slipping into a coma and dying a couple weeks later. Perspective is a b$@&!, eh? It'll take ND and the other inundated states a while to right themselves, but it'll happen.

The water lily is a tuber and you are going to plant it on it's side.. lengthwise in the pot.. where you have growth on the lily is your crown. This should be potted in the center of your pot.. the other end should be tucked against the side of the pot, the lily likes to planted in this way.. and encourages growth. Clay soil will work, but I would get smaller stone.. even kitty litter will work if it is the non-clumping type and odor free... (kitty litter is baked clay and works fine in aquatic pots... slowly lower the pot to the growing area. Because the lily is a flowering plant, fertilize with an aquatic plant food pellet, once a week.. once the temperature is around 80.. fertilize every week. Pellets work best in the pond, because they are pushed down into the soil and will not float around in the pond. In the fall, cut back the plant and sink the pot to the bottom of the pond until next spring. Next spring when things start to come back to life, lift your lily out and set it on a pond shelf where the water is warmer, yet the pot is still submerged, this will encourage the plant to send out new growth.. as the water continues to warm lower your lily to the bottom once again. Ideally the lily crown should be 20-24 inches below the water surface. Replant every two to three years. Cat tails can be invasive... keep in a pot to keep them from overtaking the pond. They also work well in a bog garden area.

Technically bogs have an acid pH, so what you have is a different type of wetland, a marsh, even though it is commonly referred to as "boggy". This would not matter except that true bog plants like pitcher plant (Sarracenia) and cranberry (Vaccinium) need acid (low pH) to grow well. You will want to look up suggestions of plants you get here (including mine since my soil is more acid than yours) since some plants require a certain pH and some are quite flexible. As others have suggested, watch that you don't plant invasives since you have a stream that flows through which would carry seeds. (Iris pseudoacorus is on the invasive list in many states.) Some suggestions of east coast natives that are happy in wet soils: Shrubs: Winterberry holly (Ilex vertcillata) is not evergreen and has bright red berries in fall and winter. Need at least one male for several females. Clethra has late summer pink or white flowers and nice yellow fall foliage Swamp rose (Rosa palustris) has single pink flowers in early summer Pussy willow, some of which are native and some of which aren't, but are not usually on the invasive list, I don't think. Button bush has white round balls of flowers (think Sputnik) that the butterflies like in summer Red-twigged dogwood has selections with variegated foliage or plain green, and bright red winter twigs as long as the old wood is cut out every couple of years. Herbaceous plants: Clematis virginiana won't grow in standing water during the growing season, but is a native white-flowered clematis that grows on our stream floodplain where it is occasionally flooded for short periods and never gets really dry, and so might work well near the edge of your wetland. It will grow well up into shrubs or trees with low branches, so I would plant it just outside of the 10 year width of one of your large shrubs. It has summer flowers and pretty fuzzy white seed heads. Irises such as blue flag and Louisiana are good suggestions as is Cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis. Another Lobelia that will do well in damp areas ( though not in standing water like cardinal flower) is great blue lobelia, Lobelia siphilatica. Marsh marigold is a very early bright yellow bloomer (with the daffodils around here) that will be happy in slow moving water a couple inches deep or even average garden soil, though the plant will go dormant in dry summers. In general, since you will view this area from a bit of a distance I would plan on planting most of these plants in groups. Many can be started from seeds or cuttings once you have one plant. You may need to dig or cut back cattails until other plants are able to get large enough to compete.