pond plants

You called, Freddy???!!

Hi, noksucow, 6'x 3' by 2' deep sounds like a nicely proportioned small pond. You're right, plants will make your pond look even nicer and also help keep your pond healthy by extracting unwanted nutrients out of the water as food. That will help keep the water clear and also stop algae forming.
Question..........is your pond a preformed type or one that has been dug out and a liner used? Also does it have a shelf running around the side of it? Knowing that will help with the choice of plants.
Firstly there are Deep Water plants.........like Water Lilies, then there are Floaters where the whole plant floats on the surface, after that there are the Oxygenators which extract nutrients and carbon monoxide and turn it into oxygen. Finally there are the marginals which can sit on sides with 2 or 3 inches of water over the top of their roots and they also take unwanted nutrients out of the water.
I can recommend varieties of each class but obviously it's all down to personal taste. You obviously have to bear in mind that you don't want something too big for the size of your pond and variety in height will add interest.

Deep Water................Water Lilies [in your case dwarf or small varieties] such as Dwarf: Aurora, Odorata Minor, Paul Hariot, Pygmea Alba and Hevola.......there are others. Small types, Firecrest, James Brydon, Sioux, etc. Other deep water plants are Aponogeton [Water Hawthorn], Nymphoides [Water Fringe], Orontium [Golden Club].

Floaters............I'll only mention the hardy ones like Hydrocharis [Frogbit] which disappears to the bottom during the Winter and will reappear in Spring, Stratiotes [Water Soldier] which will do the same, Utricularia [Bladderwort] which will do the same.

Oxygenators............Chara, Ceratophyllum, Fontinalis, Elodia, Hottonia, Lagarosiphon, Ranuculus [Water Buttercup], Tillaea [Swamp Stonecrop].

Marginals.............Butomus {Flowering Rush]. Calla [Bog Arum], Carex [I would recommend Bowles Golden], Caltha [Marsh Marigold] another good one. Eriophorum [Cotton Grass], Iris, Mentha [Water Mint], Acorus [Sweet Flag], Alisma [Water Plantain]. There are more but that's should be a help.

Marginals can be planted in small baskets or large-ish pots that have holes in the sides. You honestly don't need to use special aquatic compost to plant the marginals. Ordinary garden soil will do I assure you., but you will need to line the baskets or pots with Hessian then put in the soil and plant.....then put small gravel on on top to stop the compost or soil floating out.

It does all come down to personal tastes and likes, but the more marginals planted the better chance you have of keep the water clear and the pond healthy and, of course, attracting Wildlife.

 

It will grow as a Marginal, but to be honest it has a reputation of being a bit of a rampant Thug if it finds the right conditions.

 

If you don't try, you'll never know

 

Well, depending on the size of the plants it's not a bad selection especially as it includes the baskets which will save you messing around. I doubt whether the offered plants are of any real size but are probably young and plug sized so it will take them a full year to become sizeable.
To be honest, I would leave buying plants until next year, early Spring, as planting them now [apart from the oxygenators] and leaving them to the Winter's weather when they are in such a young state might mean some will not survive. Your pond will be there for years to come so have a think about what you want and do a little research on the Plants you might want.