Water Lilies and Hyacinths

nrlymrtl ♦ October 16, 2012 ♦ Leave a Comment

Yellow water lily

The water lilies we planted earlier this year did far better than the ones planted the year before. Several of them bloomed, even if it was just a single bloom. All of them put on leaves. I think next year we will have a lot less algae, which will be good for the fish and frogs.

Floating water hyacinth

I’m a fan of Freecycle and through a local group, I met this wonderful lady who gave me several water hyacinths. These plants have built-in air sacs, so they float around the pond being pushed by the breeze. The water hyacinths finally bloomed a few days before our first hard frost, which killed them. The blossoms were beautiful and just about half of them made it to the flowering stage.

This nice lady also gave me a few Floating Heart plants, which we planted on the pond floor. This is a natural pond fed by ground water, so the bottom is mud and rocks. I thought planting them directly in the pond muck would make them happy. However, they don’t appear to have made it. Perhaps they will surprise us and pop up next year.