Best pond/stream plants

We have a little stream that runs through our garden, my partner, Dean has decided to make it into a sort of pond but it still runs through like a stream (he has made it deeper than it was) and we now have a few fish in there. I was wondering what the best plant(s) would be for this? The water can gush quite bad when we have heavy rain so it must be able to cope with that.

 

Fish wont be staying long then?

 

A plea for native plants only as it's connected to a stream. No Himalayan balsam, no Canadian pondweed, no Parrots..?.......whatever it's called. These non native things that look nice in a garden pond can cause serious havoc in our watercourses by out competing our native flora with knock on effects on the surrounding ecology and habitat. The Environment Agency spends millions of pounds every year removing some of these plants because they are so detrimental to the ecology and as your site is connected to a stream the plants and seeds will be washed downstream so please, please please stick to the natives!!! There are many many nice ones.

 

We have put netting up at both outlets then they can't get out


Redwing thanks alot for your advice, I saw a gorgeous water lily over the weekend and was so tempted to buy it but I thought against it as the water can get quite feirce at times and I hear they are not good with moving water...?

 

That's true about water lillies not liking moving water. There is a native one though, a white one called Nymphaea alba. It's quite vigorous (I have it in my pond) and very lovely too but I don't think it copes with fast moving water. Do you have a quiet end to your pond? Another nice native is King Cups but that would need a quiet point too. Perhaps you could make a boggy part where plants wouldn't get swept away. I can't really think of anything that copes with torrents on a regular basis other than trees!

 

Not wishing to be a wet blanket, but since the enviroment agency have been mentioned, are you sure it is legal to do what you have done? (only asking) The enviroment ageny do take a dim view if its not right.

You may want to check out

agency website

 

Most of the plants you would need for fast moving water tend to grow long flowing runners the best way to tackle your problem would be to grow marginals the roots would grow in the water and provide cover for your fish, Lythrum salicara - Purple loosestrife, Myosotis scorpiodes - Water Forget-me-not, Polygonum amphibium - amphibious bistort., Ranunculus fluitans - Water buttercup are some you could use.

 

Yeah its all fine, we phoned around a few places before we started to do anything with the stream and they said everything was fine as long as it was secure with some sort of netting, which we have done Thanks anyways