Water Garden Plants for Small Garden Ponds

Plants for wild and ornamental ponds

The right choice of water garden plants will depend first of all on the type of pond you have decided to make. A wild pond should create the right conditions for many native plant and animal species. Only native plants that are obtainable in the gardening trade should be used for such a pond. You can plant any plant species from the gardening trade (even cultivars) in an ornamental pond.

Choose water garden plants from the following categories for your small garden pond:

Marginal plants

A sea of flowers and greenery!

The marginal zone is the decorative frame of any garden pond. A rich variety of species and a colourful profusion of flowers should abound. Make as much space as possible for this zone in your garden pond.

Splendid flowers, unusually-shaped leaves and delicate grasses are all excellent marginal plants. All of them require damp or wet soil for their proper development. When growing naturally in the wild, the roots or upper-parts of shoots of marginal plants remain immersed in water. This zone in your garden pond can be full of flowers from spring to autumn if you choose the right species of plants. The most varied species of insect are also at home here which, in turn, will attract songbirds, frogs, toads and newts.

• Acorus calamus (sweet flag)
• Alisma platago-aquatica (water plaintain)
• Bidens tripartita (trifid bur-marigold)
• Butomus umbellatus (flowering rush)
• Calla palustris (bog arim)
• Caltha palustris (marsh marigold)
• Carex pseudocyperus (cyperus sedge)
• Eriophorum spp (cotton grass)
• Equisetum fluviatile (water horsetail)

Floating and surface plants

A carpet of colour over the pond!

Splendid surface plants like the colourful water-lilies and other, less well-known plants, give a garden pond its real charm.

Floating plants usually have no roots that are anchored in the pond floor and tend to float on the surface of the water. The splendid water-lilies are the most sought-after surface plants but there are others which are just as attractive. These offer a useful alternative to water-lily as they will also thrive in small pond€ Do not plant too many surface plants. It is better to have one plant that flourishes than too many set too close together which entirely cover the surface of the water and cut off the light from underwater plants.

Good examples are:

• Callitriche palustris (water starwort)
• Nuphar lutea (yellow water lily)
• Nymphoides peltata (water fringe)
• Nymphaea alba (white water-lily)
• Polygonum ampibium (ambhibious bistort)
• Potamogeton natans (broad-leaved pondweed)

Submerged oxygenating plants

Nutrient regulators and suppliers of oxygen!

Underwater plants are the purification workers of the garden pond. They are able to function as "nutrient-traps" and "dirt collectors".

Submerged plants play an important role in the care of a pond as they supply the pond with oxygen and remove excess nutrients dissolved in the pond water, which would otherwise quickly lead to excessive proliferation of the algae which make the water cloudy. Any excess nutrients in the mud can be removed from the pond through regular thinning out of underwater plants. In addition, the underwater plants help to keep the pond clear, as floating substances land on their leaves and are "held" there. They should be included in every garden pond. A further advantage is that they provide a refuge for many small pond creatures.

Good examples are:

• Certaophyllum demersum (rigid hornwort)
• Myriophyllum spp. (water milfoil)
• Hottonia palustris (water violet)
• Utricularia vulgaris (common bladderwort)
• Potamogeton densus ( opposite-leaved pondweed)