Ponds page 4
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A pink Water Lily, sorry no name, just the word
"yellow" on the label attached to the planting basket. I have
mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating, buy in flower if you are
after a particular colour, and yes this one was in flower, and I did want
a pink one. The first Water Lilies I tried were too vigorous and soon
outgrew my pond so now I try to choose the medium growers for my largest
pond and miniatures for the smaller newt pond. The miniatures will even
grow in a half barrel or other tiny water feature. None of
them are happy in fast running water or in the spray of a fountain, they
like their leaves still and dry on top. You can still have them even if you have
running water, just plant them away from the faster flow.
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The Water Forget-me-not Myosotis
scorpioides is another plant suitable for the tiniest patch of water
or bog garden, this one is in my very small front pond. It does tend to
spread but is easily removed if it goes too far.
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These three Primulas are all bog garden rather
than pond plants and will also grow in damp soil. The one to the left is
Primula florindae, below left is unfortunately a lost namer, and below
right is Primula alpicola violacea. All are strong growers given plenty of
moisture and are useful for adding later colour to bog areas.
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The plant to the right is Mimulus lutea, and
another useful bog garden plant, although this one is also happy in
shallow water. The ancestors of this plant spread all over the
garden by seed when we moved in here in the early 1980's, then we had a
number of dry Summers and it died out completely. The plant in the
photograph re-surfaced as a seedling last year when I took up a section of
lawn to plant more flowering plants behind the main pond. I placed the
tiny thing in the greenhouse over winter mainly to protect it from slugs
and planted it in the newt pond in the Spring. I have hopes of it now
re-populating the garden. Do you realise that the seed from which it came
must have been dormant in the soil for about fifteen years.
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The plant to the left is Houttuynia
cordata Flore Plena, the double flowered variety. This is very useful as
a bog garden plant and also as a marginal for masking the edge of the pond,
although it is dormant until quite late in Spring. It can be a little
invasive, but the leaves have good structure and it does add variety to
the more usual grassy foliage of many marginals.
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As you can see I don't specialise, my pond
contains a mixture of Koi Carp, Rudd, Goldfish and Tench. The fish in
the centre is a particularly well coloured Ghost Koi, the small fish
lower left is a young Rudd bred in the pond last year. They are
all difficult to photograph, I find that there is only one time of day when
the light does not reflect too much off the surface of the water.
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To the right you can see my tiny front garden
pond, one year on, and looking very established. Frogs are now using it
on a regular basis as a stopping off place to wet their skins, or
just as a refuge to escape one of our cats. Compare this picture with
the one on page 1 of the pond section, taken from the other side just
after completion.
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I shall write more about other plants in my ponds as
the year goes on, and they come into growth/flower, and hopefully show more
photographs of these and some of the other creatures that inhabit/visit these
watery worlds.
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