Side kicks

[matherfish]

The Frankly Scarlet is a really nice lotus. How many tubers did it make?

[dperry]

Don, do you have extra carnivorous plants you would be interested in trading for other water plants?

I don't have carnivorous plants.  I just visit places that have them.

BTW, I have another brother who is a retired deputy sheriff from Florida who is living near Monterey, Tennessee on top of the Cumberland Plateau.  Five years ago, we built a pond for him behind his house.  Here's a link to a video of the day, five years ago, that we first filled it.  It's now surrounded by many plantings.

https://youtu.be/GkwfyDLfTwI?list=PL82A5D5C0C327102A

Here's a photo of what it looks like now with all his nice plants and the woods for a backdrop.

[Jerry]

I watched them ALL Don, terrific job.
I always wanted to design a form for a pathway ala Frank Lloyd Wright!

[dperry]

   I can't believe you watched them all.  You got to see most of the trials and tribulations we experienced with weather going from snowing to 90 degrees and horrendous rainfalls to dealing with buffalo gnats that drove us to near insanity.  That pond has about 7000 gallons of water in it and now has goldfish, golden orfe and red-eared slider turtles, as well as dozens of frogs of 4 different species.  He has the downspouts from his metal roof piped into the pond, so he rarely has to add water.  A one-inch rainfall adds over almost 5 inches of water to the pond.  Digging the pond was a challenge with all the sandstone rock in the sandy soil.  Luckily, gaslines were being installed and he was asked if they could park a backhoe on his property during a rainy period.  He spoke to the operator about digging the pond hole for him and the guy did it for $100.  Much cheaper than chiropractic treatments.  The pond could easily be made deeper as the bottom is solid sandstone, a ledge that extends under his whole property. He'll never have to worry about the pond shifting or sinking unless the whole mountain goes.

[Jerry]

Just building the pond and the series on footpaths.
I have watched many  over the years.   I liked making pond edging over a cardboard box too! Cement work is exhausting these days :'(

[redberry]

Hi

 Matherfish:
How many lotus tubers?  That's actually a hard question to answer... the tubers were coiled around in several layers.  There were a fair number of young leaves.  I could see distinct junctions with some segments longer than other segments.  I had thought the tubers would be fatter than the connecting segments, but they all looked fairly similar in shape/size.  I selected some which had obvious growth.  I kept the remaining sections in some water for now as a back up.

dperry:
That is quite the pond project! 

redberry

[matherfish]

The two plants for today are the White Snowflake and Pink Flamingo Water Celery.
White snowflake is a plant that grows shooting out runners from its root system and producing new plants from the runners. The plant has lily like heart-shaped leaves that floats on top of the water. It produces white "snowflake" like blooms that are about 3/4 inches in diameter and are five petaled. Plants also are produced from seeds.
Water celery is a tasty treat to fish. Koi enjoy eating it. The Pink Flamingo variety has pink with light green or yellow with the green in their feathery, celery looking, leaves. A very strong propagating plant also.
Both plants are attractive in your water features.

[matherfish]

Two more bog/marginals are the Variegated Cat Tails and the Variegated Sweet Flag.
The variegated variety of each makes the plant more colorful, but maintains the same characteristics of the green or common varieties. Cat tails grow th 6 or 7 feet tall, and sweet flag grows to about 30 inches tall.

[dperry]

Pictures taken half-an-hour ago and last night.

Sibererian iris





First water lily blooms with frog sitting on lily pad

[matherfish]

Those look great, Don! The frog looks happy in his nicely decorated home!   

[redberry]

I thought I'd pick up on this thread since I found for the first time one of my variegated cattail plants has a flower stalk on it!  The plant is very tight in its pot, I'm sure, since I had not gotten around to dividing it.  It has tipped over so it isn't vertical anymore.  As I was adding water to my tank, I saw this dragonfly resting on it so I had to get my camera to get a photo. 

redberry

[matherfish]

Nice pic, and love the dragonfly.