I wonder what everyone uses to plant their water plants.... I have a few lilies i had bought last yr still remaining in the pots i bought them in. The fish had fun messing with the dirt that was in the pots. Now i have a few more water plants, and prefer not to plant them in pond soil. I was thinking.. would it be ok to place the plants themselves in a lingerie bag and just place them in the pond, bareroot?
It surely would help keep the water clearer then it is.
This pond had been started up in June 2005. I had a pond at my other place, and even with landscape stones on top of the plant pots, the koi managed to play with the dirt.
Any ideas?
Water Plants in Lingerie net bags?
terri;
We place large river rock on the top two inches of the tubs for our lilies; we used to use the smaller plastic pond pots the mesh type it was ok till our Koi got to be 24" plus. then they just knocket the pots over. We now use a larger tub and make sure we have enough rock on top that are too big and rough for them to lift out. The lilies seem to be strong enough to find their way up through the layer of rock. We still use good topsoil dirt, and a little water plant fertilizer. This year we are trying lotus, in tubs outside of the pond with just a trickle of water going through the tubs. Have our fingers crossed. It is a little early yet; I hope it don't stay cold too long that the tubers die off before we even get to see any leaves come up. Wishing you good luck on out smarting the Koi. ( or fish that you have)
Terri, that's an intriguing idea. We've had a pond for a little over a year and now need to repot some of our plants. Some people have told me to use dirt with lots of clay and I think that's what Water Garden Gems uses where we bought our plants. We do have some that have their roots anchored in gravel though. I would think that lingerie bags would be worth a try if they are made of nylon. But the roots will still go through the holes. Well I don't know. When the roots fill the bag, it'll be a nightmare extracting the plant from the bag. That could be a recipe for disaster.
I heard panty hose with the panties cut off. The nylon is so flexible it would stretch as the roots grow. When you are ready to divide the plant, pull them out, cut the nylon away, divide, put them in fresh hose tie em up and drop them back in the pond.
It could work.
Molly
We used cheap knee high hose from the dollar store when we first got our pond. We placed starts of forget-me-nots in them with some dirt and tied the top around the plant base tossed them in the pond and anchored them to the sides by putting the string under a perimeter rock. We now have the entire pond and small stream bank covered with them. We also used these for the water hyachints when we had koi, to keep them from making such a mess of the plants. My neighbor used this method for some elephant ears, and they really did well last summer. Good luck with all your water gardens this year! Lou.