I bought some Mare's tail about 1 1/2 months ago. It was all green and fluffy. I put it in shallow water and now it looks dried up except for very few green tops. In the picture it is in the foreground if you can see it.
Any ideas? Thanks!
Mare's tail
I have never seen this plant before, but usually when a plant turns brown it's either going dormant for the winter or it's not getting enough water. Is this a submerged plant (i.e. supposed to be completely underwater)??? You might want to go back to where you purchased the plant and ask someone there.
Hippuris vulgaris http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/plants/plantid2/descriptions/hipvul.html and http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/marest15.html Couldn't find anything about it dying back, but ButterflyGardnr is probably right.
Lorie, this looks like parrot's feather to me. The pot needs to be low enough in the water so the "feathers" can lay across the water. It's great stuff. Mine somehow didn't come back up this year after comeing back three in a row. Oh, well. It's a great plant for surface coverage. Good Luck
Kokopelli,
I can see how you would mistake this for Parrot's feather. But I assure you it is not. One of the most stark differences is that Mare's tail is upright and not as fluffy as Parrot's feather. The other thing is that I do have some parrot's feather near this plant. YOu might be able to see it in the pic.
I did get them confused. Hope your successful in getting your plant back to health.
I can't say what's wrong with your plant but... I have this plant too. I got it last year and it looked just as sad as yours. I tried all sorts of different water levels and sun amounts for it and nothing seemed to help. It stayed looking bad all year no matter what.
This year, I brought it up from the bottom of the pond and it has grown sitting on a rock in an inch of water and also submerged to pot rim and both have done well and look great. Good thing too, if it had come up looking bad again I was going to compost it.
If you guys need some more of this Mares Tail I have a ton of it ....It growes wild here and the river bank is full of it.........When I grow it I only have it a little in water.......(we call this horses tail here)......e-mail me if you want some.......will do for postage or trade....... :o)