Fins and Stems

Plants in a pond seem to take care of themselves… during the summer anyways.

Knoxville TN is in USDA Zone 7. This effectively excludes us from a number of plants that are hardy only in tropical zones if you don’t want to keep buying them every year. I, myself, try and buy plants hardy for Zones 2-6. This keeps my plants in a safe area hardiness-wise. The USDA Zones are set to an average hot-cold. If you have koi and an average of less than12 hours of direct sunlight then you shouldn’t have to worry too much about the +85° heat here in the South because the water shouldn’t be too warm.

Summer is when I started really putting in aquatic plants. It’s easy then. You buy plants. You put plants in water. Plants grow. Trim/train plants. Plants are beautiful. Easy.

Fall is a little harder. You may buy plants just to see if they’ll over-winter in your pond. You add a little fertilizer to help them take a bit quicker. You get all the plants ready to try and survive the winter. You pray. The pond starts to look dead.

Winter, in a word, sucks. Like major donkey cojones. Your pond looks dead. You’re saying Hail Mary’s in hopes of your pond pump/aerator/heater not losing power and causing your fish to die. You’re hoping that you properly wintered your plants and the majority will return (especially if it’s your first winter and prone to worry, like me). You’re reading up on plants you put in and know didn’t do well to try and save them next year or cull them if they’re just too much work. Some items you put in (like my Pennywort, Zones 5-11) were supposed to be fine. *Note*: supposed to be. But died off anyways and you’re busy surfing the interwebs to try and find out why?!?

Spring is alot of work packed into short times separated by long stretches of waiting. If you start too soon you’ll kill fish or plants as they start to wake up from winter. If you wait too long the badkins in your pond can take over and be that much harder to oust. You have only a limited number of sources to gain plants (usually over the internet) until the local greenhouses open in mid-late March. THAT is a pain in and of itself.

I’m not patient. This makes Fall, Winter, and Spring unpleasant for me. I have a mantra of "Waiting now, waiting now, do and they’ll die." repeating im my head to try and keep from over-doing things in each season.

As opposed to a "Green" one. Some would say I do *cough* Mike *cough* but I just say that I lack real experience. My mom can grow almost anything. My Grandpa (her dad) can grow anything that ever contained chlorophyl, even if it was only ingested. What are some indicators that your plants should plan to get headstones as soon as you’ve bought them?

• When you follow the instructions on the plant, does it still die?
• Did you read the instructions?
• Did you follow the instructions?

If the second and the third apply to you, you’re not a "Black" Thumb. You’re just likely male. If the first sounds like you, Hey, it happens. Try again and treat the instructions as general guidelines and suggestions. The plant itself tends to tell you what it needs.