Help! Pond plants not thriving.

[Pond skipper]

Wow, what does gritting mean

 

[Pond skipper]

Yes I guess that’sa concern, even though I want a lot of coverage I don’t want it to get out of control

 

[Stickleback]

Hi all, I’m wondering what is the best method for planting my marginals. I only have a few, one variegated, sweet flag and two pickerel rush. I transferred them from their pots bare root into pea gravel (see picture) but not only are they not showing any growth but most of the stocks of the pickerel rushes are bending and breaking and the sweet flag isn’t fairing much better. My pond is quite shady and I know that’s not ideal but these plants were supposed to do ok in part shade. Do you think my pond is too shady for anything to do well? (Pond pic taken this morning at 10 am )

Hi, I too have lost some plants due to transplant shock so that's certainly a thing. Your pond looks very shady and I'd be worried about leaves falling in this autumn: maybe you should net it soon? The only plants I have that have thrived in gravel were water crowfoot and hornwort ie plants normally supplied in bunches because they are known to take nutrients direct from the water. The rest I believe really do need soil to root and thrive because it's actually this rather than the nutrients in the water that feeds them. Perhaps in established ponds with natural substrate and fertilisation from fish droppings it's different though. Anyway, I repotted my new plants in ordinary garden soil, added a slow release fertliliser, topped with gravel, soaked it in a bucket, then introduced it into the pond and they did fine, though we've had a wet summer here so not so much flowered outside. i think others on the forum who say don't disturb them again this year are right and you should wait until next spring now. Plants which I understand tolerate more shady conditions are marsh marigold, bog arum, blood dock, water forget me not, and peltandra, with primula for pondside. Ferns too will thrive in quite deep shade I believe. Water lilies need full sun, that I know, and pickerels and irises also seem to need it. I'm far from being expert but I hope this helps. Bonne chance!!

 

[Pond skipper]

Thank you for your input. I was going to get a couple of the shade plants you mentioned but I was a little late to the garden Center and they were so out of almost everything. I hope what I got will survive the winter so I can’t repot them when they sprout next year. I thought I had read all over the place in the form that bare rooting them in gravel was the thing to do with marginals.. maybe it works better for the ones that have full sun.

 

[Stickleback]

Hi. I think from your climate rating that like me you don't have what pond plants ( I am told) love as much as sun, which is warmth ..... !!!! Here in Scotland we are supposedly rated 7 but my husband The Scientist (!!) says realistically with our cool summers we are probably more like 6. So I am trying to stick to super hardy things. I plan to build a pond inside a polytunnel one day so I can grow lobelia and calla lilies and umbrella plants and all the other wonderful plants that won't thrive outside. All the best!!

 

[Pond skipper]

Ya I’m in zone 5. I think I’ll have to thin out the trees a bit, it’s gotten shadier this year than it used to be. I hate to do it though, I love the trees

 

[GBBUDD]

I wouldn't touch the trees I'd look at plants like ferns mosses hostas. You can make the area amazing just some of these plants take longer to grow

 

[Phaewryn]

Thanks for the reply. Do you think maybe I should have left them to grow in the pots with actual soil for a longer period before putting them in the naked in the pea gravel

I line my planters with pea gravel, but put clay in the center around the roots, then cover that with more pea gravel on top to keep the clay in the planter. I just use plain unscented non-clumping cat litter, wetted down so it's goopey. Using just cat litter makes a mess in the pond, but putting it in the middle of gravel keeps it contained. I've also been dosing my pond with Seachem Flourish. I have lots of new growth on my newly transplanted wild plants which I blasted the roots clean/bare with a garden hose on high (so they should have been totally shocked). Not 100% sure if it's the clay helping, but in the past my plants which I put in plain pea gravel didn't thrive.

 

[dinm]

I was asking the same question about Sweet flag a month ago, but here we are a month later they are doing very good. I had another plant that wasn't doing so well, turns out some plants like a bit of water not a lot of water. That plant is now doing also fairly well.

And my pond is under a big fruit tree. I was surprised when digging it that there weren't many roots, like at all, there were some small ones but it seems the anchoring ones are elsewhere and deep. I get some sun in the morning, about 30 mins maybe, then it's all shade or dappled shade. I have found that a plant will do better if you leave some of the soil, I mostly plant with gravel and no soil, but sometimes for whatever reason the plant accustoms far better if you leave some soil place.

I have a fern also as a marginal, that one I planted to see what it would do, and it's doing fine, no new growth but new growth on ferns doesn't appear that fast anyways, it's not drooping though or wilting. Chameleon plant's doing well and spreading like crazy, though it is invasive I would not it remove it because it takes out nutrients, and looks quite good, so as long as it does not pierce liner I'm good with it, though it shouldn't anyways because of the gravel there is.

There was a plant a nursery sent me along with a water lily that I put in the pond, it's something like hornwort, that is doing fine too, it seems to be a floating plant. But I would definitely consider leaving some soil in there whenever you plant, it's not as bad as it sounds, I actually have one that I literally took out of the nursery pot removed a bit soil and put it in the pond, that is one of the Sweet flags. I think they'll reach 2ft by end of the month. There's a site that can actually list you all the shade/deep shade/woodland plants, and whether its a pond plant etc, I'll link it here later if I can find it.

 

[j.w]

It's definitely fun to try different ideas and then when something works great it's all worth the effort.
We keep on learning all this pond stuff and sharing it w/others forever.
Everyone is then happy, happy, joy,joy