The only garden lovelier than one filled with gorgeous blooms of your most treasured flowers is one set against the enchanting, tranquil backdrop of a shimmering water garden.
Finding beautiful aquatic and bog border plants worthy to inhabit such a lush setting couldn't be simpler -- or more enjoyable!
Even the names of these exotic lovelies are magical. Queen of the water ball is Nymphaea, the tropical or hardy water lily. Her minions are equally delightful: Sea Lavender. Fairy Wand. Floating Heart. Angel Wings. White Sacred Lotus. Blue Flag Iris. Sunny Marsh Marigold. Purple Pickerel Rush.
True aquatics, such as the water lily, lotus and arrowheads, look stunning rising and floating across the typically sized water garden. But they're spreaders, so be sure to keep their roots contained in clay or plastic pots submerged beneath the water line.
Bog plants, such as the astoundingly profuse Marsh Marigold and the strikingly beautiful Japanese Blue Iris, flourish along the garden borders and in the marshy wetlands at the edges of ponds.
To select your own water garden plants, know your garden space first. Is it sunny? That's important, because most aquatic plants thrive in full sun, at least 6 hours a day. How large a space will you fill? What pests might be a problem? If you're prone to mosquitoes, you'll want to save room in your water garden for a few lively goldfish, who enjoy romping through the lily pads and will eat mosquito larvae in return for your generosity.
Get to know your plant choices, too. Tropical water lilies are more lush and fragrant than the hardies, but can't tolerate cold nights and won't overwinter. Arrowheads love wet soil, but rarely endure transplanting and tend to be aggressive spreaders if left uncontained.
Nymphaea: Queen of the Ball
The two types of water lilies, tropical and hardy, can co-exist wonderfully in any water garden.
The tall, showy tropical Nymphaea are absolutely dazzling in garden pools and ponds, stretching their many-petaled flowerheads up and above the water. They'll bloom magnificently for two or three days, showering the air with their sweet fragrance.
There's a bonus: Most people don't realize that these lovely, nodding aquatic beauties, glowing in a rainbow of pinks, purples, reds, blues and yellows, are gloriously long-lasting and fragrant in cut-flower arrangements.
Tropicals, as their name suggests, aren't winter-hardy and can't be planted until the water temperature in your garden reaches 70 degrees, and is sustained at that temperature, at night.
Hardy water lilies, while less dramatic and fragrant than their more fragile tropical cousins, are still among the most beautiful plants you can own.
The hardy Nymphaea have the added attraction of offering a three-day to four-day blooming period, and will thrive in all but the coldest regions, as long as the icing on your water garden doesn't reach the plant roots. Their palette runs the gamut from deep, rich purple to pure white.
All water lilies love the sun and like to be fertilized. The pygmy lilies will put out blooms about 2 inches wide, perfect for the tub garden or small pool. Full-sized lily flowers can reach five, seven or even nine inches wide, and have more than 60 brilliant petals on a single plant!
Here's a brief listing of some of the most colorful and delightful additions you can make to your water garden:
Water Lilies and Lotuses
-- Nymphaea 'Sunrise' for creamy, fragranced flowers that bloom late into the afternoon
-- Nymphaea 'James Brydon' will actually tolerate partial shade
-- Nymphaea 'Gonnere' for a magnificent double bloom with more than five dozen snowy white petals per flower
-- Nymphaea 'Blue Beauty,' a tropical, for profuse and striking multi-petaled blooms above an unusual, speckled foliage
-- Nelumbo lutea 'American Lotus,' for pale yellow, musky-scented blossoms, 10 inches across, that reach up to five feet above the water
-- Nelumbo nucifera 'Speciosa,' a fragrant, single-blossomed lotus with white petals fringed at the edges in deep pink.
Elegant Bog Border Plants
The key point to remember about bog plants is that, while their roots are in soil, they'll do as well out of the water as in it, as long as the soil that secures them is constantly wet.
So boggy ground that wears a thin layer of water above its soil after a snow-melt or heavy rain is a perfect breeding ground for such wonderful plants as the Blue Flag Iris, the Floating Heart and the harbinger of Spring, the Marsh Marigold.
Here are a few can't-miss bog-flower choices to border or inhabit your water garden:
-- Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris), for foot-high mounds of showy green foliage and bright clusters of vivid golden petals
-- Pickerel Rush (Pontederia cordata), for white, purple or blue floral spikes on three-foot spear-like stems
-- Floating Heart (Nymphoides peltata), for sweet, heart-shaped foliage wearing profuse yellow blossoms that seem to float across the surface of the water
-- Iris 'Blue Flag' (Iris versicolor), the American bog iris that peeks its deep blue heads out of northern bogs and swamps in early spring
-- Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia), with its edible tubers and wispy white blossoms that grow on striking green arrow-shaped foliage
-- Water Clover (Marsilea), for fairy-like clusters of four-leaf clover that drift lazily across the surface of the water, searching for a final rooting place
-- Pennywort (Hydrocotyle vulgaris), with leaves resembling the geranium or nasturtium, and tiny green flowers that emerge in midsummer.
Whatever your choices, learn the plant's ins and outs to ensure years of pleasure from your purchases. Don't be afraid to experiment with sizes, colors and fragrances, and keep your eyes open for new plants and miniatures of old favorites!
And don't forget maintenance and fertilization, when needed. In the end, the better you tend and care for your lush and lovely water garden, the richer rewards your garden will give to you!
