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Dig This: Lilies In Springtime

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 2, 2008

Make a splash outside with a water garden.

Whether you've got a half-whiskey barrel with a liner and pump on the patio or a 5,000-gallon pond dug into the yard, you've got a water flowerbed.

And like many other flowers, water plants tend to love springtime.

''Water lilies slow down in the winter,'' says Chuck White, owner of Dragonfly Water Gardens in Tampa. ''They produce fewer leaves and blooms. As it warms, they take off.''

The lilies are a water garden staple, White says. He likes bog plants as well. They grow in very wet ground or shallow water, from about 6 inches to 18 inches deep, and add interesting color and texture to the water garden.

And they're not just pretty faces. They help balance the pond, he adds, particularly if you have fish.

''They eat up ammonia, filter out waste, add oxygen.''

White, who installs ponds and landscaping, works closely with Pondscapes water garden center at 4213 S. Manhattan Ave., Tampa. Most of the plants he likes can be found there or ordered there, he says. They like full sun to partial shade.

- Penny Carnathan

Water Lilies

There are so many varieties and bloom colors, you can't go wrong. Water lilies grow best at a depth of 1 to 2 feet and require fertilizer once a month with a tablet you can buy at your local garden center.

These otherwise hardy plants don't like turbulent water, so don't place them under a waterfall or in a stream. They're especially amazing as spring warms and the pads grow larger, with one lily producing three or four blooms at a time.

I like to have at least one day bloomer and one night bloomer so I have blooms going 24 hours a day.

Horsetail

Great for bog areas of the pond and adaptive to container gardening, horsetail can grow in depths of 12 to 40 inches. It can be invasive, so don't be tempted to plant it in that marshy corner of your yard; it should be in a container.

It reminds me of asparagus — not my favorite veggie to eat, but I do like the look of it. Horsetail adds a nice structural element to any water garden or container.

Sensitive Plant

Another great bog plant for pond or container gardens, this one has nice texture and looks especially good when placed in front of another plant, such as horsetail, that's very stiff.

Sensitive plant spreads across the pond like a carpet, and little yellow flowers bloom throughout the summer. What is really cool is when you touch its leaves, they fold up — hence the name.

Corkscrew Rush

I love this plant. With its green, curly, leafless stems extending to about 18 inches, it offers an unusual presence and texture to any water garden.

This, too, is a bog plant, one of those plants that, when you see it, you're compelled to touch it.

Black Magic Taro

Black magic is great for the pond and also adapts well to a container. Its deep purplish-black leaves make it pop when mixed with a lush green landscape.

Black magic grows about 4 feet tall and has great leaf structure almost shaped like an elephant ear, also a common name.

- Chuck White

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