After I’ve done all the planting of 18 lantana plants and another stonecrop ground cover plant, I went out, walked around the house and checked on all of my “new kids on the block” several times. They look a little bit wilted in the mid-day sun but I know they will be perfectly fine tomorrow.
Yellow lantanas, just planted in my round flower bed
That, however, is not yet the end of my spring planting craze story. I love to be adventurous and try new things – so I went online and ordered some more plants, the kinds I’ve always admired but have never grown before. I can’t even describe how excited I feel to receive and plant them – and then watch them grow and bloom throughout the season.
First, I ordered giant canna Yellow King Humbert. I always loved the look of cannas and I know they perform really well in this area of Central Florida. The only complaint I’ve heard from one of my neighbors was that they got all killed by some kind of a bug that ate the roots – or something like that.
And since my cannas will be planted in large pots, I feel very confident that the yellow giant cannas are an excellent choice to add a lot of bold color into my yard – which (with all the colorful planters) has never look this cheerful anyway…
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Photo “Bee in canna Yellow King Humbert – Canna indica” – courtesy of mauroguanandi
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Next, since I like mixed container planting to extend interest and color to year-round, I went looking for some pond plants. Since cannas perform well on the edges of ponds, I thought some other water plants might prove to be their good companions.
And that’s where I found Pontederia Cordata or Pickerel Rush, and decided to give it a try – in an instant! It blooms in the shade of blue color that I can never resist…
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Photo “Pickerelweed” – courtesy of bob in swamp
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My last choice of “marginal” of the edge-of-the-pond plants was a Cat Tail or Typha Latifolia. I’ve never even thought I could grow these in containers so they were another fast and easy decision to make…
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Photo “Cat Tails” – courtesy of Betsy J…
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Related articles
- What to do in the garden – Third Week of March? (andrewbabicz.wordpress.com)
- Gardening Calendar: March 2011, Week 2 (telegraph.co.uk)
- 2 Jan 2011 – Sunday (peaslovinhappiness.wordpress.com)
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HOW TO SELECT AQUATIC PLANTS FOR A POND – The first question to ask is, “How does my pond look?”. Is it lacking plants that float on top of the water? Does it have murky water or is the water clear? Does the edge of the pond look good? To begin you must get a clear idea of what you would like your pond to look like.
Start with the perimeter of your pond, work on choosing what shelf plants you’re going to put around the perimeter. Leave room for growth. Do you want tall perimeter plants such as cattails, rushes, and reeds? If you have a smaller pond, tall plants will give your pond a larger look. Maybe you want to get away from the grass-like look, then choose some flowering or low growing plants to give you more color. Most pond enthusiasts love having the iris plants in their water garden. They provide a good combination of the two.
Next you’ll want to look at how clear your water is. Getting it tested at a local pond shop will tell you your pH level (which is essential to keep stabilized for plant and fish health), ammonia level (which is raised by fish waste), and other levels like salt and nitrite levels (these are less important to know). Fighting algae or murky water can be a challenge, if you currently have “bad” water there are a couple steps you can take to solving this “bad” water problem. If it’s algae you’re fighting, whether it be string algae or green water, you can fight this problem the natural way, or the chemical way. The natural way takes longer but it more reliable in the long run. Thanks for listening!
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