5 minute read
SPARKLING WATERS
by Dales Life
Adam Appleyard on plants to prettify your pond
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pond isn’t just a bonus for the local wildlife, it’s an opportunity to grow some gloriously colourful flowering plants that will brighten up your garden from early summer through to mid-autumn.
Pond plants vary considerably in their requirements. Some need to be planted half a metre or more below the water’s surface whereas others prefer a depth of just a few centimetres. Yet others thrive in the damp, muddy margins. If you’re creating a new pond or remodelling an existing one, allow for maximum variety by incorporating slopes and terracing to provide both deep and shallow planting areas.
Here’s a selection of attractive, easy-to-grow aquatic plants whose flowers will add colour and sparkle to your pond and its environs.
IN THE MONET
Waterlilies (Nymphaea spp.) With their supremely elegant flowers and heartshaped floating leaves, waterlilies are some of the most stunning aquatic plants you can grow.
And with modern dwarf cultivars you don’t need a massive pond to give them a home. Some will thrive in as little as 30cm of water, meaning that you can grow them even in a modestly proportioned tub. Larger cultivars will be more suitable for wider, deeper ponds, so discuss your requirements with nursery or garden centre staff before committing to a purchase.
Waterlilies like full sun and, most importantly, calm water. If you have a fountain, cascade or other splashy water feature they will need to be kept well away from it.
HERE BE DRAGONS
Menyanthes trifoliata Some of the largest waterlilies need up to two metres of water to grow in, but the majority of aquatic plants are less demanding – and more flexible – in their requirements.
Menyanthes trifoliata, which sends up stems of gorgeous, delicately fringed pink-and-white flowers, can be planted at any depth from 1cm to 60cm – or even, at a push, in reliably damp soil.
Commonly known, somewhat unflatteringly, as bog bean, Menyanthes trifoliata is a British native species; you can see it growing wild at Foxglove Covert Local Nature Reserve in Catterick Garrison. Like many tall marginal species it is popular with dragonflies and damselflies, who use clumps of it as egg-laying and perching sites. It is happy in either sun or part shade, but being a fairly vigorous plant it is not best suited to very small ponds.
BRILLIANTLY BLUE
Pontederia cordata A striking plant for the 15–25cm deep zone is Pontederia cordata, also known as pickerel weed. It has bright green, arrowhead-shaped leaves and bears stout spikes of small, densely packed, vibrant blue flowers in late summer. A white cultivar (Pontederia cordata ‘Alba’) is also available, although it lacks the visual impact of the blue form.
Pickerel weed hails from the New World and thrives in the wetlands of Canada, so it can happily survive a harsh Yorkshire winter. It likes full sun and will benefit from an annual feed.
OPENING PAGES: LEFT Waterlily Nymphaea ‘King of Siam’ RIGHT Iris laevigata THIS PAGE: TOP Pontederia cordata pickerel weed LEFT Menyanthes trifoliata bog bean
PRETTY IN PINK
Butomus umbellatus The flowering rush, Butomus umbellatus, is another handsome British native plant. Despite its popular name and its tall, grassy leaves it’s not technically a rush. Whereas true rushes generally have fairly sombre green or brown flowers, Butomus umbellatus bears generous domes of rose-pink, three-petalled flowers in June and July.
Butomus umbellatus is a bold, structural plant that shows to best advantage in medium-to-large ponds. It does best in a sunny spot with its crown 15–20cm below the water’s surface. Like waterlilies, it’s a nutrienthungry plant, so dose it with slow-release fertiliser tablets every spring.
ON THE EDGE
Lobelia siphilitica Finally let’s turn to three plants that prefer to grow in shallow (0–10cm) water or reliably moist soil at the pond’s edge.
Lobelia siphilitica, the cardinal flower, is another vivid blue plant from the Americas that flowers in late summer and early autumn. It makes a splendid cut flower but should be handled with gloves as – like many lobelias – it contains an irritant sap. Grow it in full sun or partial shade.
EXQUISITE IRIS
Iris laevigata Iris laevigata, the Japanese iris, has rich blue, purple or violet flowers striped with creamy white. Unlike some irises it is an enthusiastic repeat flowerer, providing colour and interest on-and-off from late spring into early autumn. There’s an especially appealing cultivar, Iris laevigata ‘Variegata’, which provides additional visual interest in the form of boldly striped leaves.
Iris laevigata prefers a sunny spot in soil on the acid side of neutral. Propagate by dividing the rhizomes in midsummer.
COLOURFUL CHARACTER
Houttuynia cordata ‘Chameleon’ Let’s end with a plant guaranteed to catch the eye of garden visitors: Houttuynia cordata ‘Chameleon’.
The tangerine-scented flowers of Houttuynia – yellow spikes ringed with white bracts – are interesting enough in their own right, but it is the heart-shaped leaves that are this plant’s most notable feature. Green splashed with gold, they acquire increasingly bright pink tints as the season wears on, ending the year as a vibrant mass of colour.
Houttuynia spreads readily by underground runners, making it an excellent ground cover plant. And if you end up with too much of it you can always consider eating the excess. The aromatic, peppery leaves are widely used in Indian, Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine – hence the plant’s alternative name of ‘fish mint’ – and the rhizomes can also be cooked and eaten.
THIS PAGE: TOP Small wildlife pond planted with irises, waterlilies and equisetum ABOVE Lobelia siphilitica LEFT Houttuynia cordata ‘Chameleon’
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