I used to have "ditch variety" cattails in my pond - Every fall I cut them
down to 2 " stubs in the 5 gal squat pot and pulled that in the spring and
dumped all the root mass and only replanted ~ 2"-3" dia piece of root &
stem - it didn't jump the pot as it had lots of room to grow in the pot -
gave a nice effect of swaying stalks 2 - 3' high like you say you are after,
but after 7 yrs I decided it was time to change and took them out
Gale :~)

I spend yesterday pulling cattails out of my relatively small pond
(~7X7').
I probably lost the best of my hardy water lilies in doing so and now
things
look more than a bit bare (I threw water hyacinths from the upper pond
into
the lower just so the fish have some shelter). While the cattails were
really pretty they were on the way to completely taking over the pond (I
really want a pond about the size of an acre on a 100 acre "lot").

I had decided to stick to the variegated sweet flag for the feel of grass
but it now doesn't seem to be exactly what I want. I would like something
that is in the water, is about 2-3' high, sways with the wind and can be
contained in a pot (cattails quite happily leap out of the pot and go to
their hearts content). Has anyone had any luck with miniature cattails?
How about cotton grass? The umbrella grass that I had in my pond died but
now I have it coming up everywhere else. It also does not have the
quality
of "sway" that I'm looking for. What is rush like? Any ideas?

DK