Hey Pam (Southern greeting!),

Where in South MS are you? We are in Clinton.

On your WH, if the growth center is still hard and the plant floats, they
may well come back. The leaves go in the frost, but a good proportion of
ours come back. The key differentiation is whether the core turns soft or
stays hard. In late March or early April we strip the dead leaves but toss
the cores back into the pond.

Do you have any pics of your pond on the web?

Jim
"Pam" wrote in message
.. .
Hey Jim ad Phyllis,,

Down here in south Mississippi we turned on the pump and started the bio
filter last weekend. Next year we will not turn it off. That last freeze
killed the water hyacinth but the azolla is alive and well.. I am
guessing
that it is parrot's feather that has poked little bright green whorls
above
the surface of the wate; below the surface the rosy reds are playing and
hiding in it. DId it get cold eneough for your frogs to hibernate? We
now
have two frogs where last year there was only one. I thought that silly
frog would hibernate or move elsewhere over the winter, but he did
neither.
During the coldest weather we had he sat just below the surface of the
water
in a pot of pickeral weed, so he could torment the cat! That is one loud
frog.

Pam



"Phyllis and Jim Hurley" wrote in message
...
Our Mississippi day temps are now consistently in the 60s or better.
The
water in the pond is at about 50. Soon, it will be warm enough to feed
the
koi.

Jim is replacing our pump. Waterfalls again, soon.

The Water Hyacinths that made it through the winter are jus starting to
push
leaves. Interestingly, those in the main pond did not make it. I
suspect
the koi saw them as food in the winter. BV, want some once things heat
up?

Our parrots' feather and water celery are also starting to send shoots.

About 30 apple snails (Trapdoor) were eggs in October, wintered in my
aquaria, and are 1.5" or so now. Big enough to breed once they go into
the
pond.

How nice to have winter end and the season get under way.

May your ponds awake and the chatter on the ng return to ponds.

Phyllis

--
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