Picking plants for the water garden

Water gardens have been popular for some time now, and it seems they are only becoming more and more so.

However, whereas everyone wanted cascading water features so that they you could "hear the sound of water" a few years ago, there seems to be more of a trend towards calm,tranquil ponds with an abundance of water plants and lazy Koi or Goldfish gliding smoothly about.

Perhaps whilst on the subject of fish I should just warn that if you have never had a fish pond before, you will almost certainly have a problem with Kingfishers or even Herons in a larger pond, so you need to make arrangements to protect your fish.

Placing mesh over the ponds is a common remedy, but you need to ensure that the mesh is visible to the Kingfishers or they could dive into it and either entangle themselves, or injure themselves fatally.

The mesh must also be attractive enough to bear looking at, and this is best achieved by having something especially made rather than by stretching chicken wireor plastic mesh across it.

There are many plants which can be grown in pots placed on the base of the pond, so that the soil is permanently saturated.

Pontederia (Pickering plant) is a tall grower which has broad leaf blades, borne on the ends of long, tubular stems. The flowers are bright blue, and poker-like in shape, and borne for much of the year.

This North American native will withstand fairly low winter temperatures, and will spread quite rampantly if space allows. I have even picked the flowers for the vase where they lasted a few days before dropping and messing a bit.

Water lilies are only suitable for fairly deep ponds -- your average pre-manufactured pond is usually much too shallow, and trying to establish water lilies in shallow ponds is difficult and results are always disappointing.

Water lilies are usually purchased in pots, and these should simply be placed into the water, and weighted down with stones if necessary.

When purchasing water lilies, always ask whether or not they are evergreen -- most water lilies die off in winter and sprout again in spring.

As a result, the pond can look very naked in winter, and the fish will have nowhere to hide away, unless you have an abundance of other plants.

I would suggest some evergreen types, which generally have smaller, less colourful flowers, and one or two different coloured deciduous water lilies, which have larger, more brightly coloured blooms.

No pond or pool would look complete without some papyrus.

There are several different ones to choose from, and be fore-warned that the giant Nile Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) can get spread rampantly if not controlled.

Cyperus alternifolius, which has flattened leaf-blades as opposed to the thin, tubular grass-like ones of the Nile Papyrus, is much shorter growing, but can also take over if not kept in check.

Neither of these types of Papyrus need necessarily have their roots inwater.

My favourite papyrus is Cyperus papyrus "nana", the delightful dwarf papyrus, which only grows to about 1m in height, and is much more controlable. It will grow in most climates, and like the other typesof papyrus mentioned, does not have to grow in water.

This week we have dealt with some plants which are suitable for water gardens, and we will continue with the same subject next time, when I will give you some more suggestions on suitable plants, and will also mention some which are not recommended for water gardens due to extreme invasiveness and threats to the environment.