Pond plants

Just Add Water

Creating your pond: plants

Planning for plants
If you can’t wait for your pond to colonise naturally, then get cuttings from trusted local ponds (with permission). If you do choose to stock your pond ‘artificially’ in this way then do so with care – avoid at all costs non-native plants, many of which could have a detrimental impact on local wildlife. The best practice is to keep it local and keep it native.

It can be tricky to locate suitable sources of native pond plants. Many garden centres and other retail outlets are unclear about the origin of their plants, and you may be buying hybrids or plants that have come considerable distance, very often from other countries. Do your research and consider buying native plants online:

Stockists of native plants:

O Flora Locale >>>
O Naturescape >>>
O Habitat Aid >>>

Further information about harmful non-natives:

O Be Plant Wise >>>
O Plantlife >>>

If you decide to use planters, get hold of some old hessian sacks rather than un-environmentally friendly plastic ones. Cut the sacks into squares and fill each with some aquatic soil and stones for weight. Tie these around the roots of your plant with hessian string and simply drop into the pond. The material will naturally degrade over time.

Common native water plants suitable for small garden ponds:

O Deeper water:	O Shallows/ledge plants:
Rigid hornwort Ceratophyllum demersum	Lesser spearwort Ranunculus flammula
Common water-crowfoot Ranunculus aquatilis	Water-forget-me-not Myosotis scorpioides
Common water-starwort Callitriche stagnalis	Amphibious bistort Persicaria amphibia
Spiked water-milfoil Myriophyllum spicatum
Curled pondweed Potamogeton crispus	O Edge plants:
	Water-plantain Alisma plantago-aquatica
O Floating-leaved plants:	Water mint Mentha aquatica
Yellow water lily Nuphar lutea	Brooklime Veronica beccabunga
White water lily Nymphaea alba	Yellow flag iris Iris pseudacorus
Frogbit Hydrocharis morsus-ranae	Rushes Juncus spp.
Broad-leaved pondweed Potamogeton natans	Marsh-marigold Caltha palustris
	Bogbean Menyanthes trifoliatea

NOTE: There are certain non-native pond plants that should be left well alone:

O New Zealand water stonecrop Crassula helmsii (also sold as Crassula recurva, New Zealand pygmyweed, Australian swamp-stonecrop, Tillaea recurva and Tillaea helmsii)
O Water fern Azolla filiculoides
O Water-primrose Ludwigia grandiflora
O Nuttall’s pondweed Elodea nutallii
O Parrot-feather Myriophyllum aquaticum
O Curly pondweed Lagarosiphon major (or Elodea crispa)
O Floating pennywort Hydrocotyle ranunculoides