Lynda Thornton wrote in
:

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!


Fill the basket with ordinary garden soil. You can add some stones if
like me you have more stones than soil available!

The basket will create clouds of mud when you lower it in, but that
should settle quickly enough. Make sure you hold the basket with both
hands and lower it right to the bottom. Once it is in, don't try and
take it out again till the plants have got a good hold, or mud will be
everywhere!

12" may be a little shallow - if you are putting a basket underneath it
there will only be a few inches of water on top. My water hawthorn is
in about 2 foot of water to the bottom of the basket, and seems happy.


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?

I don't have a water hyssop, but I find that this is a good approach for
marginals where you otherwise have a steep drop. Don't just put the
hyssop on top of the bricks - it will need a basket or a pot to hold
the soil/compost together and give it something to get its roots into.

Position the edge of this pot or basket a few millimeters under the
water, and then either use white stones around the base of the plant to
distract they eye away from the pot line, or over-fill the pot and mound
the soil up with the plant on top, so that only the mound sticks out.

A few flat stones in the pot will help prevent the mound crumbling
away before your plants have got their roots in to hold it all
together.

If you have tadpoles or a goldfish in the barrel, an alternative to
bricks is an upside down plantpot or basket with chunks cut out. You
won't see it, but it means there is a bit more water space and a handy
shelter for them.

Victoria