To me a water garden isn’t a water garden without Water Lilies. There are so many choices…Tropical, Hardy, day bloomers, night bloomers, pinks, purples, blues, yellows… that one is never enough. Water lilies & aquatic plants are easy to grow as long as you follow a few basic steps for potting and repotting.

The most asked lily question I receive from my customers is…what should I plant my Lily in? Commercial potting soils are unsuitable because they contain bark, percolate, etc. that will muck up the water & can float out of the pot. There are good commercial pond planting media available, some even have added beneficial bacteria, but the easiest & least expensive planting media for lilies is Kitty litter. Yes, that’s right, kitty litter. Kitty litter is essentially clay which will hold the nutrients & beneficial bacteria & will not float out of the pot. You can also use a heavy loam top soil or a mixture of both. Make sure the kitty litter is non scented & non clumping.

Plastic, cloth or clay pots at least ten inches across are best to use to accommodate the fast growing water lily. Remember the smaller the pot the smaller the lily. I prefer the cloth pot as it will conform to the bottom of your pond & will not tip over. Fill the pot with your planting media leaving a “hole” for the tuber. Plant hardy lilies against the side of the container at a 45-degree angle with the crown out of the soil a bit and pointed towards the center. Tropical lilies are planted in the center of the pot, be sure to leave the crown exposed. Add soil around the tuber & roots, then top off the soil layer with a half-inch of sand. If you have fish you can use gravel in place of sand to hold the soil in place, again, being careful to keep the gravel away from the growing crown.

Lilies are very heavy feeders so it is important to fertilize them starting in the spring & through out the growing season. Pond plant fertilizers come in liquids, tabs, granules & time release stakes. The stakes are the easiest to use, just make a hole near the edge of the pot in the soil & push stake in. Most time release stakes last a year but in Florida we recommend you change out the stakes in the late summer too. If you prefer a monthly fertilizer, the tabs would be your best choice. Personally, I don’t care for the liquid version unless you have quite a few plants. Granules work well when you are planting new or transplanting a lot of plants since they can be mixed into the soil.

Planting depth is an important factor to growth. You should place your lilies in the pond from 12” to 24” deep for the best growth & the most blooms. Some lilies can go as deep as 30” or more, like the Big Blue Gigantia, but remember the deeper you plant them the more energy they will take to get to the surface creating smaller leaves & less blooms. When planting new tubers or small lilies you should start the plant with about 6 inches of water above the crown, lowering to 12 inches after a couple of weeks. The lilies in your pond should be transplanted each spring. If you have them in a large pot it is ok to re-use the same pot using fresh planting media & fertilizer. Hardy water lilies should be divided every two or three years depending on the plant container size. Don’t forget the wider the pot the larger the plant. Whatever you do, don’t place the Lily close to rushing, moving water. Calm, still areas of the pond where they are not subject to splash is best for your Lily.

Water lilies crave sunshine. Make sure that they receive at least 5-6 hours of full direct sunlight daily. Some varieties, however, will bloom with as little as 3-4 hours of full sun & the Dauben will actually tolerate some shade. Follow these easy steps & you will be rewarded with big beautiful blooms all season long.

Spring is just around the corner & soon it will be time to start thinking about pruning & replacing the plants in our gardens that didn’t survive the winter. We’ve talked about the importance of using Native Plants in the garden & how some plants are edible, but did you know that many common garden & water garden plants are toxic? Some of these commonly used plant species can be harmful to our pets as well as to humans. House plants can also be dangerous. Toxic houseplants include elephant ear, philodendrons, English Ivy, Amaryllis & the peace lily to name a few. Remember if they are toxic to us or our pets they will also be toxic to our Koi. Plants that are not toxic to humans may still be a problem for your pond fish. The seeds of most plants will swell in the pond & if your Koi eat the seeds they could plug up the digestive tract. Don’t panic, you don’t have to start ripping plants out of your yard & pond. If you have children or pets you could transplant these plants to an area out of reach. Of course, it’s also important to keep an eye on small children & curious pets while they are in your garden. As for the pond, all you need to do is make sure the toxic plants are out of reach from the Koi. Before you make your wish list of new plants for your garden you may want to consider the list below. These are just a few of the more common toxic garden plants, some of which you will recognize as pond plants. Keep in mind this is just a partial list using common names & the part of the plant that is known to be toxic.

Plant    Part                          Plant     Part

Amaryllis: bulbs                       Black Locust Bark: sprouts, foliage

Bird of Paradise: seeds        Buttercup: sap, leaves

Baneberry berries, roots       Cherry: bark, twigs, leaves & pits

Calla Lily: leaves                    Coral plant; seeds

Daffodil: bulbs                        Eggplant: everything but the fruit itself

English Ivy: berries                 Elephant Ears: leaves, stem

Foxglove: leaves, seeds       Hemlock: all parts

Hyacinth: bulbs                       Iris: bulbs

Jasamine: berries                 Java Bean: uncooked bean

Lantana: immature berries   Laurel: all parts

Locoweed: all parts              Mistletoe: berries

Mock orange: fruit                 Morning Glories: all parts

Oak: acorns, foliage             Pine: sap

Poinsettia leaves, flowers     Potato eyes, new roots

Redwood sap                        Rhubarb: leaves

Snapdragon: all parts            Tiger lily: all parts

Tomato: leaves                      Tulip: bulbs

Surviving frost damage in the garden

Over the past two weeks, we have had record low temperatures here in sunny Florida. You have probably stepped outside on more than one morning to ice on your car windshield & a blanket of frost on the ground. The first thing I thought of when I heard the forecast was I had better start covering my landscape plants.

Chances are if you covered your plants as I did you will notice that some of your plants still sustained damage. If the air temperature reaches below 28 degrees, your plants will have some damage regardless. One of the reasons for this is because the soil temperature will be colder than the air temperature. Another factor is how the plants were covered. If you lay a blanket or tarp over the entire plant and the cover is directly touching the plant there will still be damage. It is also important to remove the cover during the day so the plant can warm up. Like most of you, I am to busy to cover & uncover 100 plants everyday for two weeks, so, my plants remained covered.

Some plants tolerate frost & cooler temperatures better than others do. The age and general health of the plant will play a factor in whether or not your plants will survive. Popular plants that usually are killed or damaged by frost include annuals, impatiens, marigolds, coleus & some sub-tropical like hibiscus, citrus & bougainvillea. However, do not give up just yet. Any plant that is still alive will attempt to recover. Many of your perennial plants like salvia & begonias will die back but the roots can survive the winter only to re-sprout in the spring. Same goes for bulb plants like lilies & iris. Even if a plant has lost all of its woody parts, it can re-grow from the root or stem tissue. If you did not think to cover your plants in time or you have frost damage here are some tips to helping your plants survive.

Resist the urge… to prune that is!

With a yard full of damaged, dead looking plants the gardener’s first instinct is to prune. Don’t do it! The damaged leafs can work as an insulator for further damage and will serve as a starting point for new growth in the spring. In fact, heavy pruning can stimulate new growth that could be damaged again if, heaven forbid, we get another cold snap. If the neighborhood association is complaining it’s ok to clean the plants up a little but be sure to leave some of the damage intact.

Hydration is key but no feeding please!

Keep your plants well watered. This may be the most important factor in saving your damaged plants. Windy days will dry up the soil and the frost on the leaf will actually pull water from the leaf causing dehydration. Water your plants but do not fertilize them until spring once they have resumed active growth.

What about my pond plants?

The same rules apply for your pond plants, no pruning or fertilizing. They will actually have a better chance of survival because the water temperature is generally warmer than air temperature & the plants will be well hydrated from the pond water.

Come spring when the weather warms, look for new growth & start pruning. If a plant is truly dead, don’t be too upset. That just means you have an excuse to buy new plants for your garden.

Individuals have been gardening since the dawn of time, using plants for food, medicines, building materials, clothing & simple decorative purposes. Although lately it is gaining in popularity, vertical gardening is not a new concept. Vertical gardens are found through out history. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, is one of the earliest know examples of a vertical garden. Vertical Gardens or Green Walls are becoming increasingly popular, especially in large cities where there is little land for traditional gardens but plenty of skyscrapers & condominiums.

Vertical gardens fall into two main categories, green facades & living walls, both of which utilize walls for plants to grow up. A green façade is the more popular version where climbing plants are planted directly in the ground & attached to a structure like a trellis, column, fence or wall. These types of vertical gardens can take years to create full coverage.

A Living wall is a self-contained vertical arrangement of plants that can be free standing or attached directly to the exterior or interior of a building. They typically use soil-less planting media & an irrigation system. Living walls can be created using a modular system, pre-planted panels, planted geo-textiles, or even simple stacked pots. Modular systems come in a variety of materials including plastic, polystyrene, fabric & metal.

There are many benefits to a vertical garden. Beside the fact that they are aesthetically pleasing & use less space than a traditional garden, an exterior living wall will reduce the ambient temperature, provide shade, remove airborne pollutants, filter noxious gases, produce oxygen, reduce noise pollution and help hide ugly walls as well as protects from UV damage. A beautiful example of an exterior wall is at the Musee du quai Branly a museum in Paris, France created by artist Patrick Blanc who is the leading pioneer of green walls.

Interior living walls have many of the same benefits of exterior living walls and they improve indoor air quality, reduce stress, use less water due to hydroponics style growing & can provide possible LEED points in new or renovated office spaces. The benefits for both interior & exterior living walls will vary depending on size & style of your living wall structure as well as types of plants & the site condition. Interior living walls can be free standing with basins that hold additional plants & even fish & have a pump irrigation system or they may be hung on a wall as a living piece of artwork. An artful example of a smaller interior living wall is the Living WallScape TM created by Backyard Getaway. No two green walls are the same. It is important to consider plant selection, Sedums; Succulents & Mosses are great choices. Climate conditions, such as temperature, light & maintenance, are also important when planning your vertical garden. Just like a traditional garden, your vertical garden has live plant materials & requires maintenance like adding water & nutrients on a regular basis. Choosing plants that are conditioned for your space will reduce the amount of maintenance needed. There are endless possibilities as to the creativity of your vertical garden.

What is a BeeMat?

We are very excited about a Florida green company that we found that has come up with an innovative way to naturally clean up green mucky stagnant water in lakes & ponds. If you live near a lake or pond that is green & filled with muck you know how unpleasing it is to look at not to mention the smell, yuck. One solution is to add an expensive fountain or aerator. Don’t get me wrong an aerator or fountain is a good thing. They will help to circulate the pond creating more oxygen which will break down the inorganic matter. The down side is they run on electricity. Another more eco friendly solution is to add plant life to the pond. I won’t bore you with the details of how it works but what it boils down to is the plants will act as a biological filter helping to clean up the pond. Adding plants can be difficult if the pond is deep & especially difficult if the pond water levels fluctuate. Most aquatic plants are considered bog plants or marginals & can only survive when planted in a few inches of water or just barely getting their feet wet. You plant them close to the edge & when the water levels drop they die while others that can go dry thrive but become so tall you can’t see the water. Submerged plants like water lilies do best in about two feet of water but who wants to wade out into the muck to plant them. Beemats, LLC has come up with a perfect inexpensive solution.

BeeMats, LLC uses interlocking mats, combined with aquatic plants in perforated pots, creating a suspended shallow water environment. This not only takes care of fluctuating water levels, but also produces oxygen, takes nutrients and pesticides out of the water, and provides habitat for wildlife utilization. Their patented floating plant mat consists of puzzle cut mats held together by nylon connectors. These mats may be assembled in any size or shape. After the mats are connected, plants are inserted into pre-cut holes. The plants may be any species of emergent aquatics. The mats can be attached to anchors or shoreline stakes or left to float freely around the pond. Keep in mind that if you anchor the island it will be easier to renovate or change the plants if you decide you want a new look.

Floating Islands are not new & there are several companies out there who offer their own variation on this idea. What’s unique about the BeeMats is that they are thin & lightweight making it easy to plant & transport to the pond & even easier to keep afloat. They also utilize a specially designed pot that is cone shaped with several slits in the sides allowing the plants roots to emerge from the soil creating a root mat under the water’s surface. Not only does this provide a perfect hiding place & food for the pond fish it creates a thicker aerobic layer which increases nitrification & accelerates the nitrogen cycle. This is a good thing, helping to eat up the nutrients that would otherwise be feeding the algae bloom. Adding biological filtration to a pond will also eliminate the need to add harmful chemical algaecides which may soon be restricted by regulatory agencies. BeeMats also come in smaller sizes for your decorative backyard ponds. If you would like more information on BeeMats contact Lisa at backyardgetaway@verizon.net