My pond runs all winter, zone 2/3

[j.w]

Here's a photo of my daughters vampire tooth. Just think how many lives we saved getting that thing pulled out!

 

[sissy]

poor kid

 

[callingcolleen1]

It is a good thing to save all baby teeth I have read, cause the DNA in only the Baby teeth will be used in the future to regrow new body organs cause the DNA in baby teeth is very special!! I have Poppy's and Sadie's baby teeth and one day it could be used to clone a new Poppy! (Sadies was Poppy and Bears momma)

Bear can be seen sitting on top of the car, while Poppy's long nose has led her to sniff out food under the table on the deck! Poppy also has white painted tips on her feet and tip of tail. Bear has one ear up and one ear down.

Sadie is now buried in the middle of the yard, but the last picture is of my beloved Sadie....

 

[sissy]

hurts when you look at pics of beloved animals

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes my Sadie was very much loved and will always miss her. Poor puppies missed her too. It's been 14 months now since she passed, but life goes on and I have to be their for her puppies, Poppy and Bear!

 

[mtpond]

I lost my Roscoe last year he was only 11 and then I also lost scooter he was 19 years old . They do become family. Now I'm dealing with Zoey and she has diabetes and has to have two shots a day. So sad.

 

[brandonsdad02]

Colleen...Your yellow flag iris..where did you get that at and what is it planted in? I'm wanting to add it to my pond this spring to help bring some color to the pond. I'm jealous that you have plants growing already. Everything is still brown and just starting to show signs of growth. Also your sedges. Where did you get those at also. I understand that your stores are different up there, but like at a landscape store, a greenhouse, home improvement store??

 

[callingcolleen1]

Ryan my yellow flag is still quite dormant, but new shoots are starting under the last years growth, plant is still not green, but does grow very quick and by next month it should have several inches of growth. I got my yellow flag over 22 years ago, and it has been divided many times. The yellow flag is not planted in anything, it is a massive plant that naturally floats in three feet of water and the roots touch the bottom of the pond, where the fish like to swim and hide under. The yellow flag bust out of the basket it was planted in 20 years ago and I just set it back into the pond. New yellow flags that I save from plant rhizome cuttings are not planted in any type of soil, as I find these large plants do best when they are "cut loose" in the pond and then the roots can lick the bottom of the pond clean!

Pond plants around here are most available at local garden centres and the odd pet store. CanadianTire store used to carry pond plants in there garden centre, but not no more.

The only thing I have growing right now is some tulips on the south side of the house and the snow is just about all gone, but we are supposed to get cold and more snow this weekend .....

 

[j.w]

So Colleen I could take my Iris and just toss it in the pond and it will float, grow and become a nice little floating bunch? I'll have to try that and if it works I'll just take the rest out from between my rocks so no more gets pushed into the pond. The roots on those plants grow quite extensively!

 

[callingcolleen1]

If the iris clump is not big, the tops will fall over, but if the base of the clump is quite big, it will float without falling over. Yellow flags do float, and if you have a small piece the clump will fall over in the water, but it will still float. I suggest that you tie the clump to the waters edge or wedge root in rocks, and let it get really big first. Once the clump is very large and has a deep root system, it floats very well without falling or blowing in the wind. Water sedges that have large rihzomes do quite well without being planted in any soil. Their long roots reach out and gather pond bits such as leaf litter, and use this natural material to build their own sod. I find that if you put sedges that have large rihzomes such as cattails, rushes and irises in containers they either bust the container or their growth gets too restricted and then they don't look as nice. Sedges look good and do best when in large clumps, and the wind will not break them as bad either as they are better supported when in a large clump.

 

[j.w]

Wondering if I could tie a bunch of the Iris together and see if they might stand up? If not I could still keep them tied together in a bunch and tie the bunch to the side of the pond till it gets bigger. So you prolly can't just let the cattails float around upright cuz they'd just sink right or could yo if you had them in a big clump too?

 

[callingcolleen1]

Sedges that grow without soil, their roots grow different. The roots on my yellow flag appear to be like long dense feathers. Roots that grow in soil are different, and it will take time for the sedge to "plant" itself in the water. Cattails should float too once the roots are properly established in water. If you take a cattail bulb and throw it in the water, it too will float, cause the bulbs are boyant, so whole plant may also float as well once the base is established, although I have not tried growing a cattails without soil.

When I used to make water plants years ago, I would chuck sedge bulbs in water that needed to be planted up, and noticed that most water plants the bulbs are boyant and float. Then a long time ago I read about sedges that would break off during a big storm and float to the other side of a lake, and appeared to be large floating islands. I originally had the yellow flag planted in river muck/clay that I got directly from under the bridge, down by the river, and had the yellow flag planted in a basket in that, 22 years ago. It grew very large the first two years and the basket broke away. The yellow flag was so big and I noticed there was no soil left, the plant must have ate it, and then I just stuck it back into shelf along the waters edge. The yellow flag grew so big it crossed the pond to the other side! I noticed that the fish would swim under the big plant and hide in it's long feathery roots, and showed my friend, who told me that the flags float! After a few years I made the pond bigger and then rolled the big clump back into the pond cause it was too heavy carry, and noticed that big clump that must have weighed over 250 pounds, floated once I set the root ball back into the water, and then floated it to the other side of the middle pond, where it now is too large for me to lift out of the pond, so I cut away pieces in the summer from the edge to keep it trimmed back.

Pictures from last year, could not find a proper shot of the feathery roots, but you can see to the bottom of the pond and the edge of the sedge that floats.

 

[j.w]

Thanks Colleen for all that information. I'm gonna do some experimenting and see what happens w/the Iris and Cattails taking them outta the rocks where they aren't behaving themselves! I know what you are talking about regarding the feathery roots of the Iris. Mine are flowing out from the rocks and into the pond where the fish like to hide in them. The roots are quite pretty!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Well last night we got down to minus 16 C or about 1 F. The cold creeped back to town from the deep north, and settled by the pond and quickly froze the water. Then last night some thing tripped the breaker, maybe something in the greenhouse, but thankfully I discovered it in the nick of time and saved the greenhouse from freezing and restored the flow of the ponds before the hoses froze up. I shall look into getting a circuit alarm to notify me in case this happens again.

This time of the year the sun is quick to warm things back up, and from early this morning to just now, you can see the change and now there is much less ice in the ponds.

 

[j.w]

Thank goodness disaster was diverted by the alarm in your head going off warning you about the power being off! Good idea on the circuit alarm. If you don't hear the alarm out there will the dogs let you know if they hear it by barking or do they ignore noises outdoors?