Native Plants

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Tuesday - June 13, 2006

From: Garland, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Water Gardens
Title: Native plants for water garden in Garland, TX
Answered by: Joe Marcus

QUESTION:

Hello, I was interested in creating a water garden-koi pond in the landscaping and was interested to know what plants you would suggest for this usage that would be perennial? Furthermore I was interested in using bog & marginals, submerged, and floating plants that would not have invasive tendencies but still be visually interesting and possibly flower. Thank you for your time.

ANSWER:

The Wildflower Center has a 2-page PDF article on Water Gardening that you can download from the Native Plant Library. While we will recommend some native plant species that should work well for you, their relative invasiveness will depend both on the pond they're in and on what your perception of invasive is. There is no doubt, though, that some plants will be more aggressive and require more maintenance than others.

Some bog/marginals that should work well for you are Hydrolea ovata, Pontederia ovata, Saururus cernuus, Iris brevicaulis and Hymenocallis liriosme.

An excellent submerged plant is Vallisneria americana.

Useful and interesting floating plants are Nymphaea odorata, Utricularia radiata and Marsilea macropoda.