Early Spring Water Planting

The Iris

The Iris is the first flower in the pond to bloom. If you purchased your iris in the summer you’ve never seen its flower. Now’s your chance. We sold a unique lavender iris last spring and summer (the ones that were not potted) that will delight you. Some of you may have lowered your iris in the pond for winter. Put them back on the plant shelf where the top of the pot is at water level and they’ll do wonderfully! You may want to push PondTabs into the soil to give them a boost.

Anacharis

These underwater plants survived the winter if your fish didn’t eat them. These are less for looks and more for function. You can never have too many anacharis plants to work helping your UV Light as a natural water clarifyer. Anacharis can be added at any time of year.

The Umbrella Palm

If you did your fall cleaning, you cut away all the brown, dead sticks that was the remainder of your umbrella palm. You should start to see new green shoots coming from the roots. You may also notice that the umbrella palm grew too large for its present pot. There are 2 things you can do. Repot into a larger pot to make a big plant or cut into the roots and divide them into 2 or 3 smaller plants.

Parrots Feather

I hope you didn’t throw away the stems that floated on the water after the green died away. These stems produce roots and new growth for the next season. You should be seeing some new delicate green growth from those ugly stems soon. This is another of Mother Nature’s water clarifying plants, serving the dual purpose of being beautiful while helping the pond stay crystal clear.

Ornamental Grasses

If these fellows got a little out of hand last year you may want to divide, divide, divide and give some of them away to a friend. Now’s the time to do it before the growth really kicks in.

Water Hyacinths & Water Lettuce & Tropical Waterlillies & Taro

Nope. Not yet time for these guys. We haven’t had our last cold spell and one cold dip below 32° is all it takes to kill them. I use Easter Sunday as the "safe day" that I can unveil the tropicals.

Dividing the Hardy Waterlily

Likely as not the hardy waterlily you purchased last year is beginning to grow again. You may notice that it’s growing from both ends this time. That’s because it is now 2 plants instead of one. So that your lily can grow to its potential and to increase your stock you should divide it -- now.

Here’s how:

Cut off the tips that are growing by cutting into the tuber itself with a sharp knife and throw away the other part of the tuber that looks dead. It basically is. Repot the 2 (or 3!) tuber parts with growth. Each should be planted into a separate pot -- the larger the pot, the better. Use a heavy soil mixture or go the soiless route. (Refer to the article below on potting media for water plants.) Plant the tuber against the side of the pot by wiggling it into the mud until it sticks. You should feel it tug back when you try to pull it out. The stronger grip it has the better. Now, cover the top of the soil with washed rounded egg rock to keep the fish from kicking up the dust. That’s it, except for fertilizing. Use PondTabs. Don’t be afraid of using 2 to 3 fertilizer tabs for each waterlily.

From The Early Spring Edition of What's Up, Doc?, March, 1999
© Copyright 1999, The Pond Doc's Water Garden Center. All rights Reserved. Reproduction of this article prohibited without prior consent of The Pond Doc.

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