Accessory Aquatic Plants
How to Plant Oxygenators
Submerged aquatic plants
>Floating Aquatics Plants
Floating Aquatics Plants2
Floating Aquatics Plants3
Bog Plants
Bog Plants2
Bog Plants3
Bog Plants4
Bog Plants5
Bog Plants6
Bog Plants7
Floating Aquatics (Drawings 31 and 32)
 |
 |
The plants of this group are among the most fascinating to watch develop and propagate, and they require practically no care. They live on air, water, and microscopic matter suspended in water. The water gardener can easily control them by simply scooping up excess growth and throwing it away.
They also have their practical uses. By providing shade and competing for the pool's suspended food supply, they help hold down the growth of algae. The roots provide spawning beds for the adult fish and protective cover for the babies.
PLANTING
Like many of the submerged plants, they will grow quite well if merely dropped into the pool, but will do better if their dragging roots are allowed to touch soil. Most of them are annuals. They are inexpensive, and so it is practical to treat them all as annuals and order new stock every year.
Azolla Caroliniana- A mass plant, crinkly and mosslike, a single cluster being about as large as the eraser-end of a pencil. It spreads quickly, and soon forms a carpet on the pool surface of dull sage green to dark red, depending upon how much sun it gets. The more sun, the redder the plant. It is easy enough to control in a very small pool, where it can be scooped up and thrown away, but it can be a terrible nuisance in a larger pool. It is a pity the plant is such a pest, for goldfish love to feed on the roots.
DUCKWEED-
(Lemna minor). Another tiny, carpeting plant, even more of a pest than Azolla. The leaves are oval, about the size of a match head, and it propagates at an alarming speed by offshoots. It can truly be called the dandelion of the pool, for within a short time it will choke out other plants. The plant is fine for aquariums and very small pools, where it can be controlled. The small, tender roots, which are eaten by fish, have a laxative effect and serve nicely as fish tonic.