Late Friday afternoon it was official: we have achieved pond. Plumbing, a go. Pump and filter, chugging away. Water, cold as heck because we’ve had no sunshine. Ya think that would stop me from getting pond plants the very next day?
I made the trip here…
to Whitman, MA on a recommendation. They told me they didn’t have many plants left this “late” in the season, that all the best waterlilies were snapped up in April.
But they had tub after tub of fantastical things to choose from! So, of course, I did.
Here’s the little bit I’ve learned from reading about waterlilies in New England: the flowers last about a day; the tropicals have the best scent, most brilliant colors and the most abundant blooms until about November when you have to overwinter them indoors (or replace them yearly); the hardies are still pretty amazing to look at and some are fragrant. So this is what I got to start with.
A day-blooming tropical:
key largo tropical waterlily | pondmegastore.com
And a night-blooming tropical:
red flare waterlily | pondmegastore.com
A really pretty hardy:
firecrest waterlily | pondmegastore.com
The hardy Pink Princess lotus I cannot find a photo of. Bumma.
I snagged a dwarf Egyptian papyrus:
dwarf egyptian papyrus | botanicalgrowers.com
An umbrella palm papyrus I’ve had for years will go in the pond:
umbrella palm papyrus | botanicalgrowers.com
I’ll be adding to this, I’m sure. Bix votes for cattails. When the chlorine dissipates in the pond we’ll also look into fish. Bix votes for frogs.