Flowers For Your Garden Pond

For water ponds nothing, of course, takes the place of the queenly water-lily, both hardy and tropical varieties, but for shallow pools there are some lovely plants that will lift your pond out of the just-water-lily class. None of the following asks for more than six inches of water to grow in, although they will accept more.

Water hyacinth, Eichhornia azurea, produces gorgeous lilac-colored spikes. This princess-of- the-pond grows rampantly and so needs occasional checking, especially if you wish to combine other water-plants with it. The big yellow hardy water-lily contrasts beautifully - with it, so if the pond is deep enough in the center, you might try growing the yellow water-lily there and "edging" it with the floating hyacinth. If you wish to have the lilac color in the center, you could use as an "edging" the delightful primrose willow, Jussiaea longifolia, which has yellow evening blooms.

For fragrance, the water-hawthorn, Aponageton distachyus, will delight you. The flowers are Y-shaped and come in white and rose. If you are lucky, the water-garden nursery you patronize might have a violet variety. The water hawthorn blooms even in shady ponds, a fact that may be worth noting in your case.

Water poppies, Hydrocleys nymphoides, make a gay picture alone or grown in combination with other plants. They look like large California poppies floating on the pool water. The rounded leaves are very attractive, too. Although the blooms last only a day, new ones constantly pop up to replace them.

For excellent cutting flowers, grow marsh marigolds, Caltha palustris, In colors of yellow, pink, or white. The pond should be fairly large even though not necessarily deep to accommodate them, for they grow three feet tall.

The sacred lotus makes a fine oft flower, too, for large pools, for the blooms of pink, cream, or red "are immense and fragrant, and the foliage and seed pods are beautiful and interesting.

The bog-bean is a plant that grows well in the water near the edge for it will travel up a moist bank. The foliage is lush and soft, and flowers are dainty and white.

Dracocephalums also will clamber up the bank. Particularly attractive are D. palustre with rose-colored blooms similar to snapdragons, and D. forrestii with blue flowers.

Water-garden nurseries usually have on hand aquatic-garden catalogs. In them you will learn of other desirable plants for your pond. However, if water-lilies are indispensable with you, by all means grow at least one or two varieties even though you try other water plants.