The Good Banter Thread

[addy1]

I am skipping them this year. Never did real well in the big pond, water is probably too clean, lol They did fine in the stream pond.

 

[j.w]

CE the primrose you sent me is still trying to grow also. My other kind of primrose is going nuts and I had to cut the long runners off and put the ends of the plants w/ the leaves in this floating net thing to try and keep them in one area anyways. But I'm thinking they aren't going to like it. Right now they look sad! I think I tried to cram too many in there. Oh well! Addy has some of your creeping primrose and it grew all winter for her. She has a photo of it growing now! Maybe she'll post it.

 

[addy1]

Well jw, in looking at the plants, I have your primrose, some of ce's mixed in, but do have a bunch of pennywort that has grown all winter. I lose track of which plant is which lol

pennywort

This looks like yours, pennywort and some of ce's growing

pennywort growing up the rocks

A mixture of primrose (both) and pennywort

 

[j.w]

Yep in that last photo that is what my creeping primrose looks like. Man your pennywort looks great. I don't see mine anywhere. Maybe it didn't get enough light where I put it.

 

[addy1]

The stuff in my little ponds is doing a lot better than the big pond. The little ponds get warmer during the day and have more muck/nutrients in them. Think the big pond is just to clean, the lilies do fine, but I feed them. The same happened last year, even the hyacinth didn't do as well in the big pond as compared to the small ponds.

 

[j.w]

Aha so maybe I keep my pond too clean. Oh well I have plenty of other plants that do well in there and fish have hiding spots so tis good!

 

[CountryEscape]

JW, be patient! My water primrose just started growing and showing leaves about a week ago, and so yours will, too! And, after seeing your primrose, you must have sent some to me, because I have that coming up. In fact, I transplanted some of it in small pots to the new bog. I also have the penny wart, but it just started showing leaves in the last week no more. So, I suspect our ponds are cooler than Addy's smaller ponds, and it's taking longer for them to get going. I keep seeing more and more little starts of plants each time I look in the original bog now. I'll wait until they are really well started before I transplant any of them. I had put some of the primrose from you in pots last year, so those are doing good, but I think I goofed and just plopped other plants in without putting them in any type of dirt, so they are having a harder time of getting going. Some have rooted in the pea gravel, others simply floated along, literally, and now are sending down roots, and then sending up leaves!
My pickeral rush is growing, the one plant I never could remember the name of is growing, lizards tail plants are coming up, irises stayed green and grew all winter, as well as dwarf cattails. I separated both of those pots and OMG did I get a bunch of starts for my other bog! Was a super fun day separating plants and filling my new bog. LOL

 

[addy1]

None of my stuff is in pots except the lilies, the rest, primrose, pennywort all just tossed into the pond. Must like those little ponds. The bottom little pond is also right next to the septic tank, it seems to grow all winter, well at least this winter it did.

 

[CountryEscape]

Oh, well then that's why it lived, I guess. I have so much algae that I'm constantly cleaning the bog, but there is water standing about 2-3" in the bog, so they had room to root in the gravel if they wanted to. So, I should not have planted them in pots, huh?! Oops! We'll see how they do. I just replanted the chameleon plant and other plants I bought in pots with clay, and the primrose from JW I plants in pots, but maybe I should have left it to just root in the gravel, too. I'll see which way they do best.

 

[addy1]

some put them in pots, all of mine are just in the gravel. The roots go everywhere. Everything is easy to pull out except the rush, That stuff gets one heck of a root mass.

The two stream ponds up from that one also are growing like crazy and grew all winter. Think it was just because it was so mild this winter. I did have ice on all the ponds more than once.

 

[CountryEscape]

You want to see root mass, get that umbrella palm! It's not hardy, so I was taking it into the basement. Good grief, that little 4" potted plant and roots BARELY fit into a 5 gallon bucket, and the roots took up at least half the depth of the bucket. It was quite a trick to get it out of the pond, heavy, too. Not going to bring one of them in next winter. I kept it alive all winter, but barely, and now it's having a hard time getting going again. I chopped it up into 2 parts, so maybe I damaged it somewhat. We'll see, maybe it's just having a hard time since it got cooler last few nights.
Come to think of it, the pickeral rush really does more of like tubers than roots, but it went way over the edge of it's small pot, too and now just growing from the ends of the tubers. Wonder if there is a trick to that, to get it to grow better, or maybe you have to cut it up into all the new shoots and put them in a pot to have a big plant? Not sure about that plant, but the new shoots seem to be very hardy.

 

[addy1]

They just said the average temperature for the month of March was 8.6 degrees above normal. Broke all records.

 

[Malak]

so pennywort would be good for covering the liner edge?

 

[addy1]

My pennywort is growing up and out of the small ponds. It is growing in my large pond just not as well. I do have some that seems to have rooted into the soil also.

Creeping jenny would work well too, mine is planted in the ground and creeping down into the streams, small ponds etc, covering nicely.
I also put in some of those low growth, spreading junipers, like blue rug. It is on my big ponds up hill bank. It is growing down and covering the bank and rocks, looking great.

 

[CountryEscape]

Here is a pic of my primrose/ludwigia that is growing in my koi bog. It's slowly but surely coming back to life. There are so many plants coming to life in the bog, even saw some clover that I got last year from JW or Addy. As they come to life, I look up the names. LOL Still can't remember them all, but trying...