My goldfish pond

[CometKeith]

Colleen, that's a good story. I remember getting goldfish in camp and also getting some for our daughter when she was younger. Goldie I and Goldie II will forever be cherished in our memories! None of them ever lasted longer than a week. It was always so sad, but we never had instructions and didn't know the proper care. I was impressed that the booth in the carnival asked everyone if they were familiar with the care of goldfish and they gave out information to people who didn't know.

 

[CometKeith]

A few pond pics. My water hyacinths have been blooming lately. Oh and if you look closely in the first pic you can see my obedient plant growing. It started out 4 inches long and I think it is more than a foot long right now.

Went to the Shedd Aquarium for Jazzin at the Shedd the other day. Anyone know what kind of fish this is?

Oh and can't forget the Jellies

 

[j.w]

Lucky you w/ having the blooming WH. They are so pretty in bloom. I think that fish looks like a Salmon or a Steelhead.
Jelly fish are cool,so relaxing looking and are those friendly ones or ouch ones?

 

[addy1]

my wh bloomed, but they were just not worth the effort to do again. I took them until mid late summer to bloom here.

 

[j.w]

Not worth it here either. Very pretty if you can grow them a bunch and get lots of blooms.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks JW, That fish is an Asian carp. They have been going up the Mississippi and now there are electronic barriers to stop them from going into the Great Lakes. Scientists have determined they will have a devastating effect if allowed into the Great Lakes.

I didn't touch any of the jellies. Not sure what would happen!


Addy, The wh bloom when they are stressed. You probably have the more relaxed kind!

 

[addy1]

The wh must have been kicked back taking a sip all summer. The ones in the little stream pond bloomed beautifully, the ones in the big pond just bloomed once in a while. I have so many plants I don't really need them.

 

[CountryEscape]

I bought a huge amount of WH on ebay last year, they bloomed great for about a month, then were dying back. Could not figure out what was going on: Put them in a netted floatie to keep fish away, tried them in goldfish pond and koi pond. Then someone said if water is too hot ... last summer EVERYTHING was too hot, from mid June to end of August. So, took the remaining living ones and put them in a large pot. Not air, no water movement, and they thrived, bloomed ... go figure. That water was definitely hotter than the ponds. I agree, they are too much trouble to try to keep, just to die off at the end of the summer. I kept a bunch of them alive in the garage, under florescent light, but when I moved them to the basement because thought garage would be too cold, same light used, they died. Again, go figure.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I quit keeping the floating water plants, last year they did not too much, barely spread and I have too many big sedges now and don't have room for them anymore. I used to try keep them over winter, difficult to over winter in the greenhouse cause the water has to be warm in the winter and they need lots of sun or they rot. I don't have any "love affair" with them anymore, they are too expensive to buy, too difficult to over winter, and I have had enough of them, they rot and die back very early in September as soon as the water temperature drops off.

22 Years ago I had them bloom in the small pond when there was full sun (trees were very small back then) and the water was very warm that summer. They grew great that year in that small pond, but the water got too warm and they smothered that pond and then the fish died in that small pond that year, back then no one told me to thin them out or they could choke out fish....

 

[addy1]

I am just sticking with plants that survive our winter with no care. I put out my elephant ears this spring, then we had a hard unexpected freeze, they died, so done with them. Tough love here, survive on your own in my yard. The only thing I water is the veg garden and the pond.

 

[CountryEscape]

I got some elephant ears from T'Mann, they were awesome looking bulbs, tried them in different places (stream, bog, pot) and only one lived, but man it is HUGE! Definitely going to pull that sucker and over winter it. I also have 3 large pots on my deck that all need to be brought inside, but since I have an extra bedroom with east facing window, I just put them all in there, water maybe once a week, and then put pots back out in spring. Banana plants, canna, and spindle palm. Only other plants I'm going to dig up are the Caladium bulbs. I even kept the plastic containers and sawdust to put the bulbs back into and know which color is what. I also learned they take a LONG time to sprout, so will be starting them in January next year. Take about 1 month to come up! Look so pretty in the landscape beds with all the colors in their leaves.
Oh, and if the yellow lily I got from Larkin is a tropical, I'll do my best to save that one, too. No luck last year saving tropicals, except the ones I kept growing in a large pot of water ... Must not have that drying out part figured out for the tropicals.

 

[addy1]

I saved some tropical lilies, they started growing leaves, but struggling, this summer has been too cool. So done with them too.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I save my white calla lilly every year, but let them freeze the tops off first. Then I store them cool on the green house floor, let dry, and they take little space in my greenhouse and still come back nice. I do however have a great love affair with my succulents and try to squeeze them in greenhouse for winter.

 

[CometKeith]

okay, I guess i'm alone in liking the floaters. I do thin them out almost every day or so. I think I pulled out about a dozen yesterday. It seems like my wh bloom the most when there a big fluctuations in temperatures going from hot days to cold nights and vice versa. My frogs like to sit on the water lettuces. Recently I put a pot with a flowering plant right next to the pond. One of my frogs sat there until a bumble bee showed up and he jumped up and snatched it and had a very nice meal! The third picture is of the guilty frog with the plant next to him! The fourth picture is another frog. The rest are pics of the pond and fish with the floaters. oh... and you can see my pond cyprus has fallen over so much I don't bother straightening it up anymore. I need to get a new larger pot for it!

 

[sissy]

I took my wh and water lettuce out and put it in a concrete mixing tub of water and miracle grow last year and after that they just kept growing