SMALL WATER FEATURES A SUMMER DELIGHT
Tub gardens are an easy-care element for patios and provide colour and calm
In summer, there are many choices of plants, either tropical or cold hardy varieties that are suitable for water gardens. Featuring some of each type in your water garden will create a greater diversity of colour and beauty. Brian Minter
Environment Canada is predicting a warmer than normal summer this year for most of the country.
During any hot summer, it’s really nice to have a cooling water feature on your patio or deck.
I’m not suggesting anything close to Niagara Falls; rather, just a simple, relatively inexpensive, watertight, shallow container. You might want to add a small gurgler, floating plants, a few tropicals, a water lily and, if the container is situated in the shade, a couple of goldfish.
For years and for many reasons, large garden ponds have been on the decline. Smaller lot sizes, the electrical costs of running large pumps, algae issues, zealous fish predators such as raccoons, and the overall maintenance required are all contributing factors.
Interest in smaller tub gardens, however, has really exploded. Filled with some of the new colourful water plants and enhanced with the calming sound of trickling water, they are an easy-care element for any patio.
In summer, there are many choices of plants, either tropical or cold hardy varieties, that are suitable for water gardens. Featuring some of each type in your water garden will create a greater diversity of colour and beauty.
Egyptian papyrus (Cyperus alternifolius) is one of the most popular plants for water containers, and it comes in a range of heights from Baby Tut (15 to 18 inches, or 38-45 centimetres) and Prince Tut (30 to 48 inches or 75 cm to 1.2 metres) to the tall and exotic King Tut (grows to six feet or 1.8 m). Even just sitting in a saucer of water they will look stunning all summer long. They are all very heat tolerant, but they must come inside for winter.
The fibre-optic-looking grass,
Scirpus cernuus, with its hundreds of tiny grasslike stems topped with minuscule seed heads, is another summer beauty. It, too, needs shallow water and makes a nice spillover plant on the edge of a container.
For some splashy colour, the unique foliage of canna lilies makes an attractive, even surprising, addition to shallow water vessels. The yellow and green striped Pretoria or Bengal Tiger, the burgundy-red striped Tropicana and the pure black Australia are just a few richly coloured plants that will add interest to any water garden. These cannas will reward you with tall, elegant flower stems later in the summer.
Surprisingly hardy, pitcher plants (sarracenia) look great with their reddish curled tips that attract unsuspecting insects into their long throats. Used in clumps by themselves, they are real knockouts.
Not to be outdone, hardy bog plants are quite at home in smaller water pots. I love the height and look of traditional bulrushes, but there are a couple even nicer looking varieties. Typha latifolia, with its stunning white and green variegated leaves and stems topped with very attractive brown seed pods, makes a great focal point. I also love the thin spikes and cute, short seed pods of Typha minima.
A few traditional perennials, like the old-fashioned marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) with its round, yellow double flower heads adapt well to water pots. The dark foliaged cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis), like the Queen Victoria variety, look great in water all summer, but especially when their red flower spikes appear.
Many iris, too, are quite at home in water. The Japanese Iris ensata, especially the variegated white and the green foliaged varieties, look great when in bloom with their striking blue flowers.
Even though it might not flower, skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus), one of my most favourite native plants, has foliage that looks dramatic in a small water garden.
Traditional pond plants, such as the purple or pink pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata), with its attractive foliage and blue or pink flowers, continue to be musthaves. Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia) looks great with its unique foliage and blue flower heads.
I know it can be invasive, so be careful, but the red, yellow and pink foliage of Houttuynia Variegata Chameleon is a real eye-catcher. Equisetum hyemale and members of the juncus family are also potentially invasive, but in water they are particularly beautiful, especially the twisted, curly stems of Juncus effusus Unicorn.
The addition of a few floaters will soften and enhance the effect of these plants. The elegant red-stemmed parrot feather (Myriophyllum brasiliensis) and the floating bamboo (Hygroryza aristata) are two more stunning options. No water garden is complete without floating water lettuce and water hyacinth, and both grow rather quickly.
All of these plants will help control the growth of algae and help to keep your water clean.
One B.C. company is planting up combinations of these beautiful plants in “water ready” containers so all you need to do is drop them into your water garden.
As for maintenance, just top up the water level regularly to make sure the roots are submerged and snip off any spent foliage. If you run into algae, lift everything, rinse the roots off and simply change the water. How easy is that?
A water garden on your patio this summer will add a refreshing and calming element, something we all need right about now.