#$%^ messy, invasive pond plants!

[CT]

I've got a hit list and they've got to go. 
Top of the list, Large Sensitive vine..ok, I'll admit it's pretty, it's got pretty yellow flowers but it sheds it's little leaves and stems like nothing I've ever dealt with before. What a mess! 
Water celery. Very fragile leaves, the fish muck around in it and it falls to the bottom of the pond and disintegrates into muck...
Maybe these would be good in a bog with the water iris that seem grow to giant proportions and double their girth weekly?? This is the only way they might escape the compost pile.
    Any others that I should avoid??
   
 

[LeeAnne151]

Many pond plants can be invasive. I'm constantly pruning Anacharis, parrot's feather and blue rush back.

[EagleEye]

Couldn't agree with you more. I also planted a tub of water celery. When I cleaned the pond out last weekend, this stuff was everywhere. I tossed the tub, but it had invaded a tub of iris, (which I will repot next spring) and under the folds of the liner. I pulled as much as I could.
I'm hoping my Wisconsin winter will kill it!!!!!!!!
I will save some for my whiskey tub though.

Steve

[CT]

Leeanne,
  I have blue rush. I guess it should stay in the tub garden then. The fish eat my anacharis and I've never been able to grow parrot's feather. I don't think I have enough sun for it. How's your greenhouse coming along?
Steve,
   We have pretty mild winters here. I had the same experience with yellow flag. It was everywhere and it never dies. I'm still not sure it's all out of there. I will overwinter my white snowflake, blue pickeral, taro's, tropical and hardy lilies and umbrella plant. It was a good year for the Illustris taro. Lots of little starts on it. It's a candidate for a tub garden next year.
 

[Joyce]

Parrots Feather.
Ribbon Grass.
Most Rushes.

[LeeAnne151]

The greenhouse is up though not insulated or electrified yet. I am way past due posting pics.

I love Parrot's feather so I won't be without it and I find it's invasiveness minor, it is the stems not the roots.

You would not believe how big the root system is on my Golden Club, almost 4' in all directions. for a plant around a foot tall and wide.

I'm also not a fan of 'Flamingo' water celery. I think I'll pull it up and toss it.

the garden plant that has caused me the most trouble is Lily of the Valley.

[Teresa]

Besides what's already been mentioned, duckweed, frogbit, water lettuce and water hyacinth . . .

grow the frogbit for the turtles but if you don't have turtles to eat it, it cannot be controlled.

[tranquility]

You will find you like most aquatics in container gardens alot better than in your pond....all most all aquatics are invasive-all plants loose leaves and flowers, and without a bd it all just adds to the mulm.....I love aquatics-but, most of my aquatics are in containers-not in my pond.....too much work and mess...if I do use them in the pond they are bareroot and tucked into the rocks rather than potted.....
Lawanna

[LeeAnne151]

Mine are also tucked except for one waterlily in the big pond.

Unfortunately, the neighbors mature conifers are the root of all evil as far as organic debris in my pond. I just removed hundreds of cones and needles and there are still hundreds more on the bottom. Water is crystal clear and I can see them all down there but I burnt up the Shop Vac!

Frogbit wasn't invasive for me at all. Only had it one season because it is expensive here to buy. Azolla and duckweed are eaten as fast as I can toss into the pond. Water Hyacinths and lettuce do multiply but it isn't a problem to give away or compost them.

[CT]

Lawanna, is red stem thalia tropical? Mine is flowering and I'm wondering if I should keep seeds or a piece of the mature plant for next year if it isn't hardy.
Leeanne, we insulated our greenhouse, what a chore and then it got hot again here and the double faced tape is not doing so well.  So much for trying to get ahead of the game. Live and learn. Most troublesome terrestrial plant, chocolate mint..I take it out, it returns with a vengence.                   

[barb]

I just pulled out my water celery yesterday, and was also thinking what a mess!  It's long tendrils have snaked all around the pond and snuck into the rocks, and so much of the vegetation had falled into the pond and was rotting.  I have the pot sitting in my yard while I figure out what to do with it, it has totally outgrown the pot just in one summer.  I'm thinking of planting it in my woods where it is wet all year long, I don't want it back in my pond.

[Teresa]

With water hyacinths and lettuce, the problems go much further than them multiplying quickly . . . . they drop leaves and those long hairy roots all over the pond and they both attract aphids which then attack everything else in the pond.  They just are not worth the trouble.  My fish have never eaten my duckweed, but I don't have koi.  Even the turtles cannot keep up with either duckweed or frogbit - they both grow and spread so fast and make a huge mess.

[tranquility]

Kay red stem is trop. the thalia dealbata is hardy...I have the dealbata and it has returned for 5 years now and is bareroot....
Lawanna

[CT]

Thanks Lawanna. I'll have to look up the dealbata and see what it looks like. I really like the red stems and the canna like foliage.The flowers are delicate and pretty too.

[ladybug]

pennywort, lizard's tail, both will run rampant if you let it.
ladybug

[tammie]

Azolla!!   
Tammie