Doug’s Favorite Pond Plants

Here is a list of aquatic marginal plants that we have planted in ponds here in Southeastern Wisconsin.  For the most part we try to only plant zone 4 or lower pond plants as we have the best luck with them.  Feel free to experiment and plant what you’d like.  Remember, the more pretty plants that are in our ponds the less nutrients that will be available for the algae to grow.  Plant lots of pretty plants.  I would much rather have a pond with too many of these plants listed below than a sparsely planted pond with a bunch of algae.  We always plant directly into the gravel of the pond and we never use pots.  We dig down to the rubber and hold the plant there while we cover the roots with rock and gravel.  We want the plant’s roots to spread through the gravel.  This gives us a large mat of roots to help clean our water.  Many of these pond plants grow quickly.  This is an advantage because the more quickly they grow, the more nutrients they take in.  This quick growth can be a challenge because many of the plants will spread rather quickly and will need to be controlled.