Hi

I just received one each of these plants by mail order this morning and
wanted to make sure how best to plant them in my water barrel pond. I
understand that the water hawthorn is a deep water marginal, so should I
plant it in a basket and put it straight in at the bottom of the barrel?
The water is probably between 12" and 18" deep, so will it be OK to go
straight in at that depth? Does it need stones in the bottom to stop it
floating about and how will the soil stay in the basket? I'm a newbie
with pond plants as you can guess!

The water hyssop is a marginal plant and only needs its roots in the
water as far as I understand, so I was thinking of positioning it on
bricks which I have stacked up in the barrel so that it can just stand
near the top of the water - will that work? Will I have to protect it
in the winter?

The plants are here and waiting to go in, so any advice asap please!!

Thanks - Lynda