"BK" wrote in news:3f22bc83
@dnews0.news.legend.net.uk:

After living in the pond would they thrive in the
ground if I gave them to neighbours? Alternatively
is it worth offering my Pseudacorus to anybody
here or are they like 10 a penny and everybody
gets rid of them? I don't have room for a compost
heap here and I hate throwing stuff away...

I have some iris Sibirica which I intended to plant
in the boggy bit of the pond but when my hubbie
completed the pond he couldn't quite manage the
bog. So I re-potted them last month, they're not
dying but not thriving either. Could I chance them
in the pond? Or should I find a friend with
a boggy area?


You can make quite a good boggy area out of a cheap black plastic pot or
bucket sunk into the earth, as long as it doesn't have holes in (cheap
ones from a market often don't).

Dig large hole: insert pot with top at ground level.

Fill with the garden soil you dug out, and plant irises.

Top up with water till soggy.

You can't see it's a pot if you plant stuff round the edges, and it's
much less of a pain to keep watered than wet-loving things planted
straight into well-drained soil. Just give it a topup if it stays
really dry for weeks.

Recommend only using black: anything else will be visibly plasticky.

I've done this with iris, and they stay green and cheerful even when the
soil is cracked with drought.

Victoria