Shasta Koi & Water Garden Club

January - Plant of the Month 09'

Rushes

There are many varieties of Rushes.  Below are two of the more common types that we find in our ponds in this area.  These had great height to a pond and make some great shade when planted thick.

Horsetail Rush (above) equisetum hyemale also known as scouring rush. Grows 3’ tall. The jointed stems are very distinctive. The plant has a cylindrical habit when grown in a container. It is evergreen and tolerates some shade. Prefers no more than 1 or 2 inches of water over the top of the pot. Hardy zone 3 or higher. Sun or shade.  Keep the pot even with the top of the water.  This plant can be potted, or the rooted ends tucked into the rocks of a streambed or water fall.

Corkscrew Rush, Juncus effuesus "Spiralis".  It is one of my favorites because I love the way the stems grow in a corkscrew fashion.  The flowers, light green, are insignificant, as they are very small and sometimes missed when the plant blooms. The plant grows in a "mound" and it a great specimen plant.   Hardy zone 5 or higher.  Full Sun

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February Plant of the Month

Fairy MossAzolla caroliniana

Fairy Moss is another plant that Koi love to eat. The tiny leaves can be green or reddish to dark reddish brown. Sunlight and water temperature determines the color of the plant.

ABOUT the color, fairy moss can vary in color from moss green to reddish brown.  The color will change from time to time depending on the temperature and the amount of sun light.  It is not uncommon to see both brownish red and moss green in a bunch or ONE solid color.

NOTE: most do not grow this in the pond but grow it outside of the pond in large containers to grow to feed it to their fish.  If you have a skimmer this plants will very likely end up in the skimmer unless you have fish that eat it quickly. 

I have to say that this is a favorite to my fish.  But I do not have a skimmer to worry about.  If you float it in containers, it will spread about and provide excellent shade for your water gardens.  I love natural ways to help fight algae in our area.

Hardy zone 8 or higher

www.bonniesplants.com

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March Plant of the Month

Beautiful, small (max. 3") leaves that float directly on the surface making this plant great for surface coverage, even in shady ponds! This plant is actually an aquatic fern that reproduces via spores. Easy to grow, very adaptive and sure to add a "lucky charm" to any water garden. This plant can be potted, or the rooted ends tucked into the rocks of a streambed or water fall and grown as a bog plant

Habit/ Height: Floating-leaf to water surface
Water depth: 4-12" over the soil
Light: Full sun to shade
Bloom: Summer
Flower color: N/A
Hardiness: Zones 6-11

This plant is great for those covered ponds that want to add some plants to their ponds.  I had this plant two years ago and it did really well at 4” over the soil.  I didn’t have to fertilize it to get it to grow.  It maybe took up a 1 ft. sq area on the water surface, didn’t really spread out.

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April’s Plant of the Month

Hornwort

Submerged plants are those that grow fully immersed in the water. They get their nutrients directly from the water through their leaves rather than through their roots in the soil. Underwater plants play a vital role in water gardening. They compete for the nutrients in the water that promote algae growth. They provide the fish with some food and help oxygenate the water. They also provide hiding places for your fish if they feel threatened. Hornwort, also known as coontail, is a North American native, with layered hair-like foliage that helps oxygenate and clarify the water as well as keep algae growth to a minimum. This dark green plant is a free-floating plant and is found in moving and still waters, or loosely anchored in muddy bottoms in many lakes and ponds. In a few lakes, it grows so thick, it impedes boat traffic. They are considered endemic weeds in many parts of the US and quite hardy when lighting is strong.

Hornwort leaves are dark green and linear in outline, and grow from a 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches long on stems that can reach 24 inches in length. They are toothed along one margin only. Leaves become more and more crowded toward the stem tip. They are primitive plants that do not have true roots; rather their anchors are actually modified leaves. They can also be used as a floating plant. It is beneficial to somehow anchor the submerged plants in any pond with filtration, so that they don't get into your skimmer. I would suggest anchoring them with larger rocks, or tucking them into pea gravel filled pots, to keep fish from digging them up and the plants from floating to the surface and getting into your filter.

Take heed when medicating the pond water, and remove these plants if using any medication or any water treatment for algae control. Copper (many medications contain copper) kills it in hours. Most algae killers take just a bit longer.

Hornwort can winter well at the bottom of your pond. The tips will shorten and thicken in fall, before falling off and settling on the pond floor to spend the winter as buds. In spring, these buds grow to repopulate the pond.

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May Plant of the Month

Iris

Best type: Louisiana Iris

Likes its feet wet to several inches

Likes rich damp soil

Blooms in spring

Best in low wide pots

Irises are among the most favored of the bog plants. Their foliage is attractive and is good as a backdrop or as an adjunct to the other plants in the bog. Their flowers have an obvious appeal, being among the most exotic flowers in the hobby. They are useful as filtering agents in ponds and can be grown in any moist area. Louisiana Iris can be planted along the ponds edge or directly in the water itself. They should be planted in shallow water, preferably in a container that is wider than it is deep, i.e., a kitty litter tray. In this way, the plant can spread as it wants to and is not as likely to overgrow the pot as it would be if it were planted in a tall, narrow container. Iris pseudacorus, on the other hand, does just fine if started out in normal pot. It will quickly overgrow the pot and will act as a very effective filter if the water is made to flow through the extensive root system that develops. All of the water Irises do best if cut back and thinned out every two years, or so, and if the dead leaves are not allowed to accumulate.

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June Plant of the Month

Canna Lily is the common name attached to a large group of hybrid plants in the genus Canna, in the family Cannaceae.  Canna is a Latin word meaning a type of reed. Canna are great for attracting butterflies and hummingbirds into the garden.  Watch out for the leafroller caterpillar (will be a skipper butterfly) that will attack canna.

This is a wonderful annual plant to grow in many different varieties.  Canna is an annual plant in zone 5 (Canada).  The tuber root needs to be dug each year and stored in a cool, dark place. If stored where freezing temperatures might occur the root will get mushy and be no good the following year.

As the plant grows each summer the root will multiply and when you dig them in the fall you will  have many, more pieces of root to plant the following year.  Plant the root outside in a sunny location.  Canna do not mind damp soil.

After the first frost in the fall dig the canna root and you will notice that they will have multiplied.  Shake off any extra dirt, cut off the old growing stem and any really long roots. Put into a box with allows air flow and store them in a dark, cool spot over the winter.  You can cover them with peat moss if you choose.

In April you can pot them up inside and get a head start on growing them before planting them outside this spring.  Check each rhizome for "eyes" that will be the shoots of the plant.   If there are more than one eye, you can split the rhizome into pieces.

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July Plant of the Month

Water Lilies

Hardy water lilies can remain in the pond year round. The lily will die off in the winter time and produce new leaves and flowers in the spring. The hardy lily generally flowers from May through September. Flowers come in a variety of colors, opening in the early morning and closing in the late afternoon. Some hardy water lily flowers change color shades over the life of the bloom

Water lilies grow completely within water, with their blossoms flourishing on top of or above the water’s surface. They typically grow to suit the size of the area in which they are placed, spreading their leaves across the surface of the water and filling it with color.

Water lilies require a lot of sun to grow properly. In frost-free regions, they bloom all year. In cooler regions, they bloom during the summer and often into the fall. Throughout their growing season, they constantly generate leaf growth. These leaves live up to three or four weeks at the peek of the season.

The most striking feature of water lilies is the incredible amount of variation found among the different plants. From their shape and size, their color and fragrance, or their blooming patterns and growing periods, there is a water lily for every preference and every pond.

Water lilies range notably in size ­­– from miniature flowers with small leaves to giant plants that spread over 25 square feet. They come in a variety of shapes – star shaped, cup shaped, pointed or fluffy, though that’s certainly not all. The leaves can be smooth or jagged, rounded or pointed.

The colors are just as varied, ranging from yellow, pink, red, white, purple, blue and orange. Several types of lilies are incredibly fragrant, as well.

Cont.

The lily pads of the tropical plants come in different shapes, typically smooth, toothed or fluted. The edges are usually jagged and pointed and may even look ruffled. The pads are larger than the hardies, often taking up much more space in the water than they do.

Tropicals blossoms are impressively sized – some span more than a foot across. Like the hardies, they come in many different colors. The two subgenres share the same color palette, for the most part (red, salmon, pink, white, yellow, orange, peach and near-black), but these types also come in blue and purple.

Though hardy water lilies are indeed very beautiful flowers, it is the tropical lilies that command – and capture – the most attention. They are larger and flashier than the hardies and tend to be more fragrant. They also tend to bloom for a month or two longer, stay open later in the day, and are more likely than hardies to produce multiple flowers at any given time.

The tropicals require warmer temperatures than do the hardies to bloom, thus making them a bit more difficult to grow. After three or more weeks of temperatures above 80 degrees, these flowers will finally start to open up and bloom. Once they do, they fill the ponds with their colorful blossoms throughout the summer months and well into fall. After the hardies have gone dormant, the tropicals will stay in bloom for several weeks longer, often until the first frost. During the winter months, however, they go dormant and die.

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August Plant of the Month

Hyacinth

Water hyacinth is a free-floating perennial plant that can grow to a height of 3 feet. The dark green leave blades are circular to elliptical in shape attached to a spongy, inflated petiole. Underneath the water is a thick, heavily branched, dark fibrous root system. The water hyacinth has striking light blue to violet flowers located on a terminal spike. Water hyacinth is a very aggressive invader and can form thick mats. If these mats cover the entire surface of the pond they can cause oxygen depletions and fish kills. Water hyacinths should be controlled so they do not cover the entire pond.

Submerged portions of all aquatic plants provide habitats for many micro and macro invertebrates. These invertebrates in turn are used as food by fish and other wildlife species (e.g. amphibians, reptiles, ducks, etc.). After aquatic plants die, their decomposition by bacteria and fungi provides food (called "detritus" for many aquatic invertebrates. Water hyacinth has no known direct food value to wildlife and is considered a pest species.

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Plant of the Month for September 09’

Lotus

Lotuses are found in white and pink colors in general and they grow in shallow and murky waters. Lotus flowers enjoy warm sunlight and are intolerant to cold weather. This is why, the Lotus is not seen blossoming in the winter. The floating leaves and Lotus flowers have long stems, which contain air spaces to maintain the buoyancy. The Lotus is native to Asia and flourishes in a wide range of climates from India to China.

The Lotus plant is an aquatic perennial, native to southern Asia and Australia, and most commonly cultivated in water gardens. The plant has its roots firmly in the mud and sends out long stems to which their leaves are attached. The leaves are sometimes, and Lotus flowers always, raised above the water surface. The beautiful and fragrant Lotus flower opens in the morning and petals fall in the afternoon.

Facts About Lotus Flowers

• The Lotus is a sacred flower for Buddhists. 
• The Lotus is one of the eight auspicious signs of Buddhism - an eight petalled lotus used in Buddhist mandalas symbolizes cosmic harmony, a thousand petalled Lotus, spiritual illumination. A bud symbolizes potential. The well known Buddhist mantra, "Om mane padme," refers to the jewel in the lotus, enlightenment.
• In Egyptian mythology, the Lotus is associated with the sun, because it bloomed by day, and closed by night. The Lotus is even believed to have given birth to the sun.
• The Lotus flowers, seeds, young leaves and rhizomes are all edible. In Asia, the petals are sometimes used for garnish, while the large leaves are used as a wrap for food.
• Various parts of the sacred Lotus are also used in traditional Asian herbal medicine.
• The Lotus fruits are a conical pod with seeds contained in holes in the pod. Nucifera means having hard fruit. When the seeds are ripe, they become loose in the pod. The pod then tips down towards the water, releasing the seeds.
• When the Lotus flower's petals fall, they are replaced by a flat-topped seed pod divided into compartments, resembling a wasp's hive. The tender seeds are munched happily in north-east India.
• Lotus stem is eaten almost in all parts of India, and pickled too.
• Nelumbium luteum is the American Lotus, with pale, small flowers.

Personally- I have killed each one that I have bought.  And the average price is 30-40 dollars, so I gave up! Cherie

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Plant of the Month

Papyrus

Papyrus sends out sprays of leaves that jut out from the stems like a fireworks display. The leafy clusters may form plantlets that you can separate and grown individually. Grow papyrus in a weighted pot so that the stems rise above the water surface in a pond, or grow it in moist soil at water's edge.

Light:

Sun, Part Sun

Zones:

9-11

Plant Type:

Water/Bog Plant

Plant Height:

3-6 feet tall

Plant Width:

2-4 feet wide

Landscape Uses:

Containers, Beds & Borders

Special Features:

Attractive Foliage, Easy to Grow

Common Variety-

The Dwarf Papyrus, also known as the Dwarf Egyptian Papyrus is an excellent marshy plant in small pools or when kept as a houseplant. It is the dwarf variety of the Giant Papyrus, and has strong stems reaching up to 30 inches tall with tufted umbrella-like foliage on the end. The tufts are yellow-green and turn a rich bronze in late summer.

Dwarf Papyrus make excellent deck and patio accents when planted in tubs or kettles and set in full sun to partial shade. They have very high moisture needs, so be sure to keep the appropriate amount of water in the pot. Dwarf Papyrus prefers a water depth of 1 to 4 inches over their crowns. They can be invasive if planted directly at the pond edge; they are controllable by placing them in 2-gallon containers before placing them in the water. Spreads 12".

When a stem bends over and touches the water, it will create new plantlets. If you want to speed up this process, cut off flower heads and float them upside down in water. Zones 9-11.

Other varieties:

King Tut- zone 9-11/ 18-24” tall/ 0-4” below water

Egyptian- zone 9-11/ 120-180” tall/ 0-4” below water

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November Plant of the Month

Parrot Feather

Parrot's feather is a versatile plant that you can grow under water (to add oxygen, give fish a place to hide, and cut down on algae in ponds), floating above the water, or in wet soil at water's edge. It earned its moniker from its dense plumes of fine-textured foliage. The feathery branches grow at the tops of long, floating stems.

Parrot's feather is considered an invasive plant in the waterways of temperate states where its growth can quickly become out of control.

Light:

Sun, Part Sun

Zones:

6-11

Plant Type:

Water/Bog Plant

Plant Height:

To 6 inches tall

Plant Width:

Can spread indefinitely

Landscape Uses:

Containers, Beds & Borders

Special Features:

Attractive Foliage

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December Plant of the Month

Lizard Tail

Lizard's tail is a perennial plant that has a hairy erect stem with few or no branches and can grow up to 4 feet tall. Leaves are on short petiole, lace to heart-shaped 2 to 5 inches long by 1 to 3 inches wide), alternate with veins that converge toward the base. Flowers are borne on a long hairy stem, opposite the uppermost leaf. The flowering structure consists of a spike of many small whitish flowers that forms an arching, tail-like shape. As the greenish seeds develop, the "tail" takes on a wrinkled appearance and hence the common name. Lizard's tail has a distinctive orange like-smell. Lizard's tail forms colonies from spreading rhizomes.

Submerged portions of all aquatic plants provide habitats for many micro and macro invertebrates. These invertebrates in turn are used as food by fish and other wildlife species (e.g. amphibians, reptiles, ducks, etc.). After aqauatic plants die, their decomposition by bacteria and fungi provides food (called "detritus") for many aquatic invertebrates. Lizard's tail has no known direct food value to wildlife.

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I have really enjoyed making the Plant of the Month forms.  I hope that these have given you a little insight to the water plants that are common in our area.  Thanks for a great year- Cherie

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