Anyone found a good surface cover plant?

Hi all

In my previous fish pond I had a large amount of floating Pennywort. It was given to me by a work colleague and it was excellent for covering the surface. It grew very quickly but I just used to cut it back every few weeks in the summer.

I have since moved house and now have a new pond but I am struggling to find a decent plant to cover the surface. Pennywort has now been banned from sale in the UK. I have tried several creeping plants (can't remember the names off hand) but they have failed to increase in size.

I do have a nice Lily which looks great but obviously it dies back in winter leaving the surface exposed and therefore the water turns green in Spring, despite having a filter and UV filter.

Has anyone discovered a vigorous surface plant? I wish I had taken a bagful from my old pond.

 

Hi,

Usually find pond Mint and Forget Me Not very fast growers producing dense matts of roots that need a good cut back every so often, though they can look a bit messy compared to the nice leaves of a lily.

Have you considered using one of the many anti algae products in spring to stop the algae blooms ?

 

Hi ricky

Thanks for the reply. I must admit, I have never tried any treatments. I suppose I got used to my previous pond just looking after itself because the balance was right. My garden now gets a lot of sunlight despite being North facing so the green multiplies quickly.

Thanks for the suggestion of water mint and Forget me not. I shall look into those.

 

I had Watering in a container pond. It smelt wonderful but I think it might get somewhat rampant if left to it's own devices.

 

Hi Lucius

sorry did you mean Water mint?

 

predictive text. Yes, water mint.

 

I don't know of a floating plant that will cover the surface year-round. Frogbit is very pretty - like a miniature water-lily - but sinks to the bottom in the winter and won't re-emerge till spring. Ditto water-soldiers. There's water hyacinth too - that spreads fast in warm water, but will be killed off altogether by frost.

 

Yes, that's why I liked the Pennywort because it was around all year and did a great job of cleaning the impurities from the water. Sometimes it was completely frozen solid but still survived. There were no flowers so it wasn't particularly pretty.

I have even tried Freecycle to see if anyone has any they want to get rid of. Perhaps I might have more luck in the summer when people will be removing it by the bucket load.

 

Water cress does well in my pond, has stayed green and helps to keep the water clear.

 

I have Parrot's Feather, Myriophyllum. It's suitably invasive but can be pulled out fairly easily. That's probably banned in the UK as well, now?

 

That looks quite similar to what I had. One to consider I think. Thank you

 

Thank you. That looks quite nice actually.