Thanks for all of the suggestions and help! My first inclination is to
"start digging"! I am anxious to get the new pond in and maybe just
transfer the water from the baby fish pond to the new pond and try to let
the little guys rough it outdoors. In my years of ponding, I have never
brought fish in over the winter and I'm not sure I want to start now. I've
never been much for indoor aquatics.

As far as the plants...I may try to winter some in the garage..we will see.

Thanks again!

Lisa

wrote in message
oups.com...
Parrots feather, water lettuce and water hyacinth are frost tender
tropical plants, they make no bulb, corm or rhisome that is capable of
Wintering in freezing conditions. When the temps are freezing, they are
killed. In a sheltered position, some submerged parts that are below
freezing might survive.

In areas where brief freezes are likely, the bulk of the foliage will
spoil and leave quite a mess in a pond, creating something of a
pollution problem. It can be quite a chore to remove surplus plants
late Summer... At least they shred fairly easy and water hyacinth is
fairly popular to feed to cows or goats...

Water lettuce is capable of wintering indoors in a well lit window in
dish of fertile water, water hyacinth can cope with brief periods of
cold but really needs steady high temps over 70°f and quite strong
light to keep it perky. In poorer conditions it can become leggy, prone
to fungus, generally fizzle out.

All rather bothersome to Winter indoors, compared to planting hardy
aquatic perennials, or simply ordering some fresh ones in Spring on
ebay... compare the bother of setting up a plant tray for tropicals
indoors with a parcel of plants for $10 or so on ebay next Spring...

Quite a few floating plants keep quite easy over Winter in a frost free
dish of water.... Duckweed, Frogbit, Azolla, Salvinia and water lettuce
spring to mind.

Water Hyacinth can be a bit picky about growing indoors but it can be
done

Next Spring, when your late frosts ease up, a colony kept indoors can
start trickling outdoors. It's quite a perk through the glum months of
winter, to have a few aquatics ticking over, indoors

One problem with aquariums is things can get muddled up, some plants
may thrive at the expense of others, fish or snails might turn upon
fragile new growth... Personally I'd float little isolation trays
within a community tank, to keep an eye on vulnerable small stuff and
to help keep them identified and sorted, these can be located close to
lights to create 'hot spots' to push the favourites

Think about what happens if duckweed or water lettuce starts romping
and smothering littl'uns, you may find all your tintsy wintsy tropical
waterlilies kept indoors are smothered and dwindling, and difficult to
find... then there is all that fiddling effort to try to thin out
rampant stuff all tangled up with the delicate waterlilies, its very
surprising how delicate tropicals overwinter and how infuriating it can
be winkling out bazillions of 'nuisance' plants that trample among
them...

Over and over, we get to repeat the same mistakes, every year, or
better still get it right 'first time'. Some problems you come up
against time, and time again, then one day you get an idea to improve
things drastically... like floating l'il trop waterlilies in their own
tray in a hot spot... Like, never bring duckweed indoors... Like,
isolate water lettuce in its own tray... Like you have reminded me to
clear out the indoor trays of duckweed well before the first frosts,
not after... Newby questions remind me of a lot of things I forgot,
many Winters ago, lol

Regards, andy
http://www.members.aol.com/abdavisnc/swglist.html
-----------------------------oo----------------------------------

Lisa wrote:

I live in Northern Indiana and have had a pond here for several years.
This
is the first year that my water plants have been so prolific. I have
water
hyacinths and parrotfeather that are gorgeous and I can't bear the thought
of loosing them over the winter. Is there anything I can do to keep these
plants to re-introduce them to the pond in the spring?
Lisa