Plant Pond Progress

[callingcolleen1]

Build another pond and keep them all cause there so darn pretty! Ha ha ha.

The yellow flag iris can be put in the pond anytime. That thing is just so darn hardy and I think it grows better without soil and just let the roots dangle in water or shove a piece in the gravel too and have them growing along the edges everywhere if you like. If you have other irises and not sure what type they are, just place them in shallow area of gravel and see how they do, cause some don't like lots of water over the crown. The yellow flag iris is a true water plant and can grow in three feet of water once large clump established.

 

[capewind]

LMAO... we are planning several ponds in the future, but not enough water volume to care for 250+ adult fish (aka the roughly 50 or so we already have outside, plus 200 babies). It was just a few days ago that we were drawing the backyard again. We were originally planning the main pond to be a minimum liner size of a 40x50 (held up by needing to get more walls and the patio in), but what is presently drawn is looking like two 30x40 liners, plus one or two 15x15 or 15x20 liners... the goal is to have it all look like one massive pond, but for them to be seperate, so God forbid something ever goes wrong, it would only affect one pond. Oh, and the existing "so called bog" (presently the temp upper pond) is going to get cut in half to steal for a bog for another pond... no need for a 6400-6500 gallon pond to have a bog with a surface area of 8x18, and will open up "dry land" for other plantings.

Back to the iris... I am pretty sure we do not have any yellow flags right now, but am wondering about digging up some of the unknown varieties, fill a pot with gravel, and stick them in the basement plant pond to see what they do? Maybe hubby could do ?3 pots, and place them at 3 different depths and see the IF they grow at all, or what they prefer....

I also told hubby about your "iris island" and he really liked that idea a lot. Iris' and lilies (all forms, dry land and water versions) are his favorite flowers

 

[callingcolleen1]

I will try to find you some pictures of the floating iris... let me see now where are they, the fish swim under this big plant...

 

[capewind]

That is gorgeous. It is hard to believe that they can just float like that... I already cant wait for spring to get here. Really wish I had some disposible income right now, as I would order flag iris' now and plant them in the basement to get a jump start on spring growth. I really dont care if doing that could cost a season of bloom time, as their greens are so pretty too... but then again, I like the ornamental grasses you can plant around the yard... the flowers are just a bonus to me. In a lot of ways, I also cant wait til we can start on the other ponds too... the existing main pond was built deep for water volume in a small footprint. The other ponds will have shallow areas too.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I would send it to you but it would most likely not get through border. They grow wild in Ontario and other places down east there and I read that large clumps are known to sometimes break off and float to the other side of the lake. I think Haro had mentioned that on one of the threads here a couple weeks ago. My yellow flag is 22 years old now, but divided many times. That flag is so darn huge now I just hack pieces away from around edges in spring to control it now. I swear I could turn it into a river raft and float on it. If you get a yellow flag root and throw it in the water it will float, but will lay funny on top of water is it is only a small chunk. Once the yellow flag has hundreds of these roots together the plant roots help make it stable and it floats upright. It will take three or four years before it gets very big, maybe sooner way down south where you are. That is why I recommend you just wedge the root to the side of pond and let it grow like that. I did that with some chunks and after a couple years they got so big I had to give them away. In the last picture in the middle pond you can see the early spring pictures three clumps. Got rid of two smaller clumps.

Here is what it looks like today, with snow on top and froze, then there are fall pictures and very early spring pictures. If you look in the pictures of the fish, you see the reflection of the big flag in the water, cause that was the best shot I could get of fish under flag.

The clump of sedges in the bottom pond is sweet flag, much different but looks similar from a distance.

 

[capewind]

You are totally killing me here LOL. I had no idea an iris could become a floating island. Will all of the Louisiana iris do this, or is it just the yellow flags? I could easily live with "all yellow" in a floating situation, but there are soooo many colors of them too... I saw a pic with mixed colors growing together, and from a distance it looked like a field of wild flowers.... With the future ponds, they'll only be an average depth of 3 feet, plus some shelves, so not as pushed for options as in the present pond

 

[callingcolleen1]

I think all water type iris may do this, as in nature it is natural for large chunks to break away during a big storm and float to the other side of lake and spread naturally that way. If you have a root from a Louisiana iris and the root floats when placed in water it should in theory be able to float as an island, once you have a well established plant. I have not tried this with other Iris as Louisiana iris not hardy here and it takes a good while to get a pretty big chuck. Many people plant them in soil or clay and then divide constantly so they don't see this as it does occur in nature. The iris needs to me mature and have a large enough base to support the large top. You have a longer growing season so they should grow fast for you. Louisiana Iris grow best in more shallow marsh water, but you could try a root and wedge at waters edge with rocks holding the root upright and in place until it starts to grow.

I first discovered my iris would float many years ago, it bust out of the basket it was growing in back then, and it was on a small shelf in pond. After it bust out of the basket, I placed the root ball back on shelf and a couple years later it had grown three times the size of the shelf and the next year it had grown to the other side of this small pond that I had as a middle pond many years ago. My best pond friend had come over back then and I showed her the large iris and told her it had grown way way past the shelf and I did not know how it had managed to stay upright and she told me back then that they float. I was amazed! I grabbed the clump and pulled and it would bob in the water like a raft.

The yellow flag I have is now in a much much larger middle pond and it is floating in three feet of water. Many people don't see this cause they don't "cut the plant loose" and they divide and repot constantly. If you "cut it loose" and let it grow without the restraint of a pot, a large clump will evently float.

 

[capewind]

You have definately given me some major ideas to play with, thank you!

 

[ToniJ]

Wow Capewind...thats alot of hyacinths...i tried hyacinths once, could never get them to bloom so i switched to the water lettuce..i like the softer green color and their a tad more uniformed/soft looking but by the end of july i would be scooping them out once a week because they multiplied so much..but...very nice ponds..im envious!!

 

[CountryEscape]

I love the Gin Rins (really "sparkly") in the first pic of the koi you bought, Cape, and also the solid black ones. I think Larkin was helping me when I was bidding or thinking of bidding on koi last year in December. He gave me a few pointers on what the fish looked like then, and what they "may" look like as they grew older. One thing I remember is that white fins show up much better in the pond than the clear ones. I never thought of that, but he sure is right. I, too, have several koi that look identical, two I bought and 3 more than were given to me. Other than that, all of my koi are different, chose them that way. But, I also paid more per fish than you did buying a group, and then selecting what you like best! Enjoy your babies while inside. When I had the babies from Ebay in my basement pond last year, I only fed them once a day. I made myself only go down there once a day so I didn't over feed them. I had them in a kiddie pool and I think I had 14 fish from 4" to 6". I figured that was pretty small quarters for them. I think your babies are smaller, but those koi babies look pretty large on your hand! It's soooo much fun feeding them and getting them used to you while they are little, too.
Oh, and Cape, if you are interested in any dwarf cattails, I will be happy to share in the spring, just for the shipping cost. They are really hardy, multiply fast. Only drawback is that I've had them 2 seasons now, although I split some of them and moved them this spring, but have only had one "bloom" (cattail) so far. I suspect next year I'll have more. The leaves are white/green varigated. Happy to share! Just PM me if you're interested in, and I'll keep you in mind and PM you back come spring.
And, that filter your hubby made is really neat! I love home made stuff.

 

[capewind]

Wow Capewind...thats alot of hyacinths...i tried hyacinths once, could never get them to bloom so i switched to the water lettuce..i like the softer green color and their a tad more uniformed/soft looking but by the end of july i would be scooping them out once a week because they multiplied so much..but...very nice ponds..im envious!!

Thanks Toni.. couldnt get much for plants, so started with 250 WH... they didnt grow a whole lot til summer as there wasnt much for nutrients in the pond for them. Hopefully next spring we'll be able to get more hardy plants and wont need anywhere near as many.

 

[capewind]

If you want to buy babies on ebay, Nov is the time to do it. NDK stops selling on ebay the very end of Nov, first few days of Dec and will list tons of auctions so that there is limited competition for them all... There was one auction I really wanted, I cant remember now if it was 12 or 15 babies, but it was all gin rin butterflies... IF i really liked an auction, or something in that group, my MAX bid was only $2 per fish, and for mixed (some I would like, some I knew I would sell) my max bid was substancially less. These babies are all small. All the lots with butterflies were listed as 2-4" and the one lot of 60 standard fins were listed as 1-3"... Well, that one auction ended up going close to $5 per fish... not for me! DELIVERED, I averaged $1.74 per fish. Blows the heck out of what we can get locally. Locally, a 4" fish is $20 and they dont have crap for variety. so it really is worth buying groups of babies! I also have commercial accounts with Black Creek and Blue Ridge through hubby's business, but ebay worked out much cheaper.

Outside, nearly all of our fish are different. We have two sky blue doitsui butterflies, but one is 22" and the other is 14", so can tell them apart... two shusiu butterflies but the doitsui scale patterns are different, and two orange guys (not correct so I just call them orange) that I normally call the twins that are around 9-10"... It may sound silly, but I like being able to tell at a glance who everyone is, or like when we feed, I know to hold back a bit for a couple of fish who are always late coming over LOL.

Even buying young koi in the 9-12" range can still drastically change in color, so nothing is set in stone. The color that keeps getting me is the yellows. We both want more YELLOW fish, and then as they grow, they end up changing to orange LOL.

The babies in hubby's hand are the ones spawned here May - Sept. that we held onto. Most of those are 4-5"... there's a few who are just hitting 6" (the oldest), and maybe 5 or 6 that were just moved in the last week or so out of the 55 gallon tank, to the plant pond who are 3"... They can JUST take a normal sized pellet. As soon as they can take in a pellet, they get moved downstairs... still have about 27 2-3" fish in the 55 who need to grow just a bit more to get moved. Been thinking of keeping the favorite shubunkins in the 55. Only have two in the 55 now, but 11 younger shubs (Oct spawn) still in a smaller tank will need to get moved up eventually...

 

[callingcolleen1]

Miniture dwarf cattails are very nice, I tried to grow them up here but I don't think they were hardy enough for our long cold winters. I really like the look of the dwarf cattails too. I though I would mention that the yellow flag is a weed noxious weed in some areas of the states.

 

[capewind]

Not sure which are native here, probably the normal six footers... was hoping to grab some a few days ago, but was out of luck... will go looking again in the spring...

 

[callingcolleen1]

Sounds like you participate in lots of fish auctions, I never have, not real good with the internet as this is my first computer I ever had at home, it's a tablet, got it for free so what the heck, then I found the Garden pond people and now I'm "hooked"! (Ha ha)

Will be nice to see that colorful bunch swimming in your pond this spring. I have enough fish for my ponds and everything stable, so I don't need to add more fish, but YOUR bunch sure looks tempting!