Golden Club - Leanne or......?

[emm]

Leanne, the following is copied from Kay's message in the Chat section
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#$%^ messy, invasive pond plants!
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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've read conflicting advice about how far the crown of Golden Club should be submerged which suggests it can handle different situations but I'd be interested in knowing what you have done with such success.  I bought one this year but it has not done well and I don't think it even flowered.  It has about 4" of water over the crown and is planted bare root in the gravel filter on the edge of the pond.  The nutrient levels are low there which I think is at least half of the problem.

Would you mind telling me how your Golden Club is planted?  How much water is over the crown, is it in a container and if so what kind of soil do you have it in?

Thanks in advance.  emm

[Teresa]

I'm not LeeAnne, but I have it in my pond and have seen it growing in the okefenokee swamp in south Georgia.  It doesn't care how far it's submerged . . . it will grow with it's crown out of water or quite a ways under water.

Mine is in a large pot with just clay and it has a lot more roots than leaves, for sure.  I keep the crown at the surface because I like it where I can see it and that's where the pot lands when I put it in that spot in my pond.  When I got it, it was planted in a one gallon pot and I left it there for years . . . . when I finally transplanted it, there was no dirt left, just lots of roots.  So I moved it to a big (5 gallon?) pot with lots of clay.  As soon as I did that, the top spread and it got much bigger leaves.  It also doesn't seem to much care if it's in sun or shade, tho I did see more of them in somewhat shady areas of the swamp than in the full sun areas.

[LeeAnne151]

Mine is planted bare root in my shallow end with the crown now out of the water but only because it's roots have grown so much it has pushed it up out of the water. It was six inches under water when I planted it. I've had it for years. It did take a couple to get established.

[emm]

Thank you for your responses Teresa and LeeAnne (very sorry I misspelt your name earlier LeeAnne).  I think that lack of nutrients is probably the biggest problem for my plant.  I'll have to think about where I can move it.  I prefer to keep the number of pots in the pond to a minimum but if I want to keep the plant that's what I may have to do.  I am in the process of building a new bog area right now, I may consider trying it in that as water over the crown doesn't seem to be a necessity.  If I put it in the bog I should probably think about keeping it in a container as the root system could be quite aggressive.  Thanks again, emm

[Teresa]

You're welcome emm.  It should do fine in a bog, but I would contain the roots unless you want them everywhere (think that's how they get enough nutrients in the peat bog where they are native). 

If you want to keep the number of pots to a minimum, try planting multiple plants together.  I like to put forget-me-nots around the golden club or creeping jenny or something else with shallow roots.  And I put arrowhead in with cardinal flower.  And anything goes around a taro . . . .