Cutting Cat Tail Foliage

[MoonShadows]

I bought a cat tail for my pond. The label said it was a dwarf, but it is growing by leaps and bounds and is over 3 feet high, so high that it is hitting the top of the half sun screen I built for the Southern section of my small garden pond. I can move it to the front of the pond, but I like it as a background plant. Can I trim the foliage down without harming the plant? I searched on the internet but came up empty handed for an answer.

 

[sissy]

I trimmed mine and divided it also .It just looks like it got a hair cut .

 

[MoonShadows]

Thanks @sissy. Will they stop growing at that point?

 

[sissy]

nope .I only cut mine so I could divide it .Mine is only about 10 inch's tall and the plant is 4 years old .

 

[Lisak1]

You can, but be aware that you will most likely end up with brown tips. I trimmed some in my patio pond last year and was not happy with myself. But mine were the same way - dwarf cattails that got more than three feet high!

 

[Meyer Jordan]

A 3 foot cattail is a dwarf. Cattails can attain a height of 9 feet in ideal conditions.

 

[MoonShadows]

A 3 foot cattail is a dwarf. Cattails can attain a height of 9 feet in ideal conditions.

Yup...unfortunately, before I bought it I read that a dwarf cat tail is 1 - 2 feet. Now, I see on other sites that they say 3 -4 feet.

You can, but be aware that you will most likely end up with brown tips. I trimmed some in my patio pond last year and was not happy with myself. But mine were the same way - dwarf cattails that got more than three feet high!

Don't want the brown tips, so maybe I'll just move it.

 

[sissy]

3 feet is not really that tall for a bigger pond but I think the reason mine has stayed smaller is because I divided it up several times .Only reason tips get brown is because they are healing themselves closed and that goes away .Just like a boo boo on us .

 

[mrsclem]

My water celery in my bog was over 3 feet tall. Then Mr. Groundhog got hungry and now its 6"!

 

[sissy]

feeding the wildlife to make baby hogs

 

[Lisak1]

Correction - mine was supposed to be MINI dwarf. I guess I really needed the mini-micro-dwarf in size small!