On-line plants for my water garden

I am having an attack of spring fever, as I sit in Kentucky surrounded by ice. I have been looking for some of the on-line water garden sites that don't have a brick and board store and sell water lilies and other plants at some discount. This pond is quite large and has no plants in it yet; an empty canvas if you will.
I do, however, have 53 koi. I plan to plant all sorts of lovely plants around the rocks, but certainly will need plants in the pond so my babies can breed.

Smiles,
Arabella

Ohh Arabella, that is lovely!

Try:

http://www.watergarden.com/pages/plant_care.html

or:

http://www.pondmarket.com/plants.htm

Good luck finding some plants to enhance that gorgous waterfall and pond. :D

http://www.lilyblooms.com/product.php?bigcat=1&cat=2
Meant to say that this place has three hardy water lilies for $33.00, don't know what size they would be. I could actually use a dinner plate sized group!
And Lily pons has 25% off of their selection; shipping in the spring, of course.
http://www.lilypons.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/store/st_main.html?p_catid=2&sid=pl4OZ10QHNd2wL-11104457130.8f
I had the water falls turned on in my pond and it was so cold that the water froze in wonderful ice formations. So now, the water has been turned off and I can ice skate! I hope you can see the ice clearly.....


Smiles,
Arabella

WOW! That is beautiful...frozen and not frozen!
Are your fish doing OK under the ice?

Yvonne

I buy most of mine at J&J
http://home.earthlink.net/~jyoungsprint12/index.html
I'm not sure how you do the hyper link. I first bought from them on ebay. I get healthy plants. I've heard of people getting plants and fish from some of the companies with undesirable extras. Disease and parisites. Just be careful.
I have a friend who's new farm pond got covered with duck grass this year. She's pretty sure it came with her fish.

I've purchased from a number of companies over the years:
http://www.enkoi.com/ Usually has some of the better prices BUT difficult to find out if item is in stock and/or when it will be sent out. If you don't mind waiting this can be a good source of things such as pumps, food, some meds and water treatment/conditioners. Yep. I know this one's not about plants.

http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm Great source for hardware-related things. Need a fitting? Filter media of many types?? May not be best price in town but has large variety. Their catalog is a 'must have' on your shelf (even though they don't deal with plants)!

http://www.epetpals.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?search=action&keywords=%22727613050078%22
One of the better fish foods. I've tried Hikari Gold, Misty Mountain Gourmet Fish Food, Blue Ridge, etc. and the Mazuri Platinum was one that the fish seemed to go nuts over. (I know you wanted plants - and I'm getting there - but you'll probably want to feed your finny guys also).

http://www.paradisewatergardens.com/ Has a good selection, prices are moderate but excellent quality plants. Always sends a couple or so 'extras' with the order to try out. Very helpful over the phone. I've repeat ordered from them over several years.

http://www.ewaterlily.com/ Offers a limited selection of plants however, prices are usually quite good although they've increased a bit over the past three-four years and they will fix any problems if something goes wrong with a shipment, etc. Again, I've repeat ordered from these folks.

http://www.tricker.com/ Good prices, fairly good selection excellent service.

If you're also looking for other plants around the pond then things get very complex, very fast! But one thing I'd want to stress that Sanfan has already mentioned: be careful about getting free plants/trades, etc. I once took a person up on their offer for free water hyacinths several years ago. I fortunately treated the plants before I put them in my pond because two weeks later I got an e-mail saying "oh, yes --- by the way, I think I may have flukes in my pond and just thought I'd warn you." Needless to say I don't deal with a source unless I'm absolutely sure that I will get clean plants, etc.

Looking at your pond, you say you've got 53 koi in there? I'm assuming that they're smallish? You may be thinking of expanding your biofilter capacity in the future -- just a thought.

Just to add to DRH2's post. Be aware that Koi often eat the plants in the water( I can't grow enough DuckWeed fast enough). In any case they can dig up your plants in a hurry. Jessamine

Strangely enough, the fish do just fine under the ice. I was a bit concerned with this particular pond, as it is not nearly as deep as my precious ponds. The ice was deep enough for me to walk on so it was thick. When the ice melted and I saw that I hadn't lost any, I was so relieved!

Thank you for the url's for the pond supplies and plants; I'll be shopping fairly soon. I just took a picture of the koi, and I'd say the largest is 18 inches or so. I'll find a home for my least favorites in the spring.

My goodness! You have a lot of fish! What size is your ponds?

Jessamine, I agree with you on the duckweed thing. I can get it going like crazy on top of the biofilters but the minute I put it into the pond it's --- belly up to the salad bar guys! Not only will they eat things like duckweed but they'll root around in the plants because there just HAS to be something in there to eat why would my owner have put it in here in the first place!! I've had them pull lilies out of pots and forget about trying to put a few marginals in without anchoring them with rocks. Then just when you think you've got it all figured out, anchored down, etc. the buggers decide to breed and trash EVERYTHING! Think teenagers having a party in your house while you're gone and they've brought in a keg or two of beer and invited everybody!! The picture below shows the egg mass laid on every water hyacinth I had in the pond (over 50-60 plants at that point) last year. Of course the blasted cannibals then went around and ate most of them such that 24 hours later - nada, nothing!

I loved the picture of the egg masses, I had never seen that in my previous ponds. This is the first pond that I have had a great filter system in. Someone asked the size of my pond, I have no clue; I'll measure it when it is a bit warmer. It went from the 60's here in KY to something much colder this morning.
I have no plants in my pond yet, and wonder if I can suspend a broken pine into the pond in a place or two to give them a place to lay eggs. I 'm not sure when they lay eggs, is there a specific temperature?

Smiles,
Arabella

Arabella, I don't think I'd use a pine bough in my pond if I were you. I'd either go with an artificial spawning material or just rely on water hyacinths or similar floaters and other plants in the pond to provide the protected areas. Our Koi, in this climate, spawned about the third week in June last year. I didn't have any temperature measurements to go along with that. However, as I mentioned above - they ate most of them within 24 hours!!! I've heard that fish density/crowding may be one of the significant factors in spawning behavior but I don't know.

Thank you, DRH2: I'll place some of my fish in new homes, and add plants as fast as I can. I've had fish eat plants, but they like the food that I feed them better. They eat from my hand and just love dog kibble.

If you want a medium/small white water lily, send me a message - I have to divide mine and I'll have plenty to share.

hey arabella we're neighbors! I'm in paint lick(about 15 mins from richmond) your pond is awesome! i'm getting those spring urges too but I also need to get a new pump. So I guess the plants will have to wait for a while!
Lena