Despite the perfect winter weather, I didn’t really get to spend much time outside this weekend. But fortunately I did manage to make a few additions to the pond.
During the week, a colleague who is getting out of water gardening very kindly offered me 5 dwarf hardy water lilies. These were planted in plastic mesh orchid baskets which are not really appropriate, so I bought a number of small black plastic wash basins to plant them into. After washing the old soil and pebbles off the rhizomes, I filled the dishes with sieved aquatic planting mix and added some fertiliser tablets. I then laid the lilies on top and topped the dishes off with propagating sand. The lilies are positioned right at the edge of the dishes so that they have the maximum amount of room to grow horizontally along the top of the soil.
After binging a lot of YouTube videos, I learned that pebble or gravel mulch impedes the development of the lily rhizome; which naturally grows horizontally along the surface of the soil. The placement of pebbles (chiefly to stop fine particles clouding the pond when positioning the lilies and protect the planting soil from disturbance by digging goldfish) reportedly restricts this natural growth habit and retards root development. Coarse propagating or river sand serves the same purpose of holding the fine, silty media in place whilst still allowing the lilies to develop normally. While sand is no impediment to grubby koi or goldfish, I don’t have to worry because none of my chosen subtropical fish are diggers. I also learned that hardy lilies, which grow from spreading rhizomes, should always be planted so that they have the maximum amount of space to develop. Whereas tuberous tropical species should be planted squarely in the centre of the pot. It makes perfect sense when you consider their respective growth habits. It’s exactly the same principle as when potting sympodial vs. monopodial orchids.
Two of the lilies were so tiny that I couldn’t justify planting them in dishes, so they were planted in the square reservoir pots that the water grass I bought last weekend came in. If and when they get bigger, they will go into a basin of their own.
As I now had enough planting mix, I potted on my remaining Gloriosa lily. Even though this is a hardy variety, because these plants have produced a number of new growth points I planted them in the centre of the dish so that each new lead has room to develop.
When we picked up the planting mix, I also bought some more curly pond weed and a pair of Amazon sword plants (Echinodorus cordifolius syn. E. radicans). I potted the pond weed in the same manner as the lilies. The fish seem to aggregate around the existing pot of weeds at the western end of the pond because it provides a nice, dense refuge. I am hoping that by adding more they will feel confident exploring the entire length of the pond.
The sword plants had been grown emersed sitting in shallow water, so I opted to pot them into black plastic buckets. I will leave these out of the pond until the weather warms and they recommence active growth. Then I will sink them into the pond to grow as emergents. Next to the swords are the water grass runners I salvaged from the overgrown Bunnings floaters. I hope these will develop into green carpets, then I can place them on the floor of the pond.
The paradise fish seem to be happy with their new home. To make them feel more secure I added some old coconut shells for them to hide in because there isn’t as much overhead cover as they like.
The minnows, danios and platies are doing well too. By adding more submerged plants I am hoping that they will feel more secure until the lilies start putting up floating pads in spring. I have also been giving them a little bit of food every morning to bring them out and get used to my presence.
