Water Gardening: well it's that time of the year, 0 by Carolyn22

Carolyn22 wrote:
Frilly

I do not put my plants in the bottom of the pond each year. My plants are all planted directly into my shelves and my shelves are all filled with pea gravel. If your waterlilies are not tropical, they should be fine in the bottom of your pond.

If you are not comfortable with putting plants into the bottom of your pond and you are not sure if they are hardy in your zone, you could divide them and put half in the bottom of your pond and then try to winter over the other half in your cellar/home. Have you looked up your plants to see what zone they are hardy to?

I have the Japanese Iris, but mine are in the ground by the house. They came back and flowered this year. My husband planted them the year before. I also have the corkscrew plant and that did come back this past year, however, I had lost another - I started out with 2 and my understanding is they are difficult to bring through the winter, so you can either bring that one in, or try to winter it in the bottom of your pond. I have already decided I may lose mine - I also have a couple of arrowheads that have come back each year, water celery, water iris, acorus, pickerel weed and some zebra rush. I have the hardy hibiscus too. I don't know the name of mine, but I have had it for several years and my hibiscus gets treated the same way as the rest of these plants.

All my plants get cut back. Typically the waterlilies are cut back Octoberish. We lift the waterlilies at this time and vacuum out the pond and the waterlilies are cleaned up and put back into the pond. The remainder of the plants get cut back between Nov 1-the 8th or so and a tarp goes over the shelves where the plants grow. We use rocks to hold the tarps in place during the winter months. The pumps and uv lights come into the house when the water temps hit the mid 30's and the pond heaters then go into the pond at that point. This is generally between Thanksgiving and Christmas, however, each year is different, which is why we use the water temps as a gauge.

I do not have crayfish, however my fish stay in the pond all winter with the frogs.

I am not telling you this to confuse, and I know my methods fly in the face of most of the information that is out there. My point is, it can be as simple or as complex a process as you want it to be. Again, I would choose what plants you absolutely don't want to take any chances on losing and divide them bringing part in and leaving part out in the bottom of your pond. The remainder I would put into the bottom of your pond.