1st things first - get rid of the chameleon plant if you value your life. Haha. Not even kidding. That plant - while lovely and interesting - is a notorious garden bully and will spread EVERYWHERE. It took me a full decade to finally get rid of it from my garden from just one tiny plant shared with me by a neighbor. DO NOT RECOMMEND.
Are you referring to the soil the plants come in from the nursery? It's probably an aquatic blend. Any marginal plants are good for removing nutrients from the pond - reeds, rushes, irises, forget me not, cardinal flower, arum, lizard tongue, etc. I have some hostas that grow in the shallows. Marsh marigold is a particular spring favorite. I love my bog bean.
Find what you like and plant it! There's really no one plant or another that is more beneficial - they all love the nutrients in the pond water.
Hi, I see what you mean, but I planted it bare root , so I don't think it could get out of hand. However it is growing steadily, and I imagine as soon as we get to 20c daily in about 20 days, then it will go crazy (as you say). I do not mind it though, seeing it's just roots in gravel and no soil.
As for soil, do you think it's better to plant in gravel without soil or with it? I'm thinking that soil is messy, and all plants that I've planted are mostly without soil (mostly as in may have a little bit of aquatic soil, but barely). The Chameleon plant has no soil, and it's thriving, so that must mean something. I don't like soil in water much cause if I do anything that requires moving then it can get muddy and I don't want that, I think for a water lily it's fine but even there I don't have much soil except on the rhizome a little bit, and it seems to have started growing a week or two ago coming out of dormancy. I planted Marsh Marigold, Creeping Jenny and barred horsetail (these ones do have soil, but I planted them as marginals so they do get water but they don't affect it as much) today, no soil, not sure how it'll go, Creeping Jenny will probably go well.
I have another Barred Horsetail plant, but it doesn't seem to be so much thriving, it has some soil but not much compared to the new ones added today. It's kind of orange and not much green, as compared to these ones I added today which are just green. Could it be because of not enough soil? I know it's a sign it's dried out, but it's constantly in water so how could that be?
Oenanthe fistulosa "Flamingo", this one I also planted in gravel as a marginal. Not the best practice maybe, cause they come in with soil, I wash away the soil with a hose, might be stressful for the plant. Creeping Jenny looks amazing though, I am looking to add more of those kind of plants that can get their feet wet and thrive without soil.
I suppose I may be overreacting planting without soil, marginals don't have that much effect on muddiness since if I move them it may send some muck but not much. But last time I put soil into gravel, I came to find out it turned to mud and that seems to be a fertilizer for algae.
