Your zone will make a difference in what winters over. I live in Utah, and am in zone 5. Winters here can get down to 0 degrees. I've planted bareroot -- just sticking the washed off roots between rocks -- chameleon plant, penny wart, and another fern-like plant, as well as iris. All of these have successfully wintered over for the past 4 years. And the chameleon plant pleasantly surprised me this spring by producing white flowers. Looks very pretty in the streams leading to the pond. Each spring I've bare root planted impatiens, as well as the standard water lettuce and water hyacinths, and this year, I'm trying coleus. Be sure to try bare root planting of watercress (buy it from the grocery store). It's fun to watch it grow and spread in the streams. Watercress does best in water that is more still. If you live in a zone that doesn't get much winter, watercress might take over, but here in Utah that doesn't happen. I'm convinced you can successfully experiment with many, many plants, and get a wide variety of looks using the bare root approach -- for both annuals and perennials.

One that I've heard is good for nutrient uptake is Water Celery and it's variegated counter-part. I've got the var. in my pond and it's just exploded, sending out runners in all directions. It stays fairly short, but it's quick growing and would probably be able to support itself over the water (mine hasn't gotten that far yet - it's cascading over a short rock barrier and along the edge of the stream right now). Another one that I've had good success with is Bacopa Monnerei aka Moneywort. I had gotten a couple plants from the local pet store (sold as an aquarium plant), and planted it in a couple of the plant baskets on the stream edge. The initial leaves melted a bit, but once it got used to growing above the water it took off and did a bang-up job of covering the pots and cascading down and along the stream. It's also blooming now with small bluish-white flowers that are about 3/8" in diameter. This has done a fairly decent job of floating out on the water, but can look sparse unless a bunch of stems are planted. I don't think it'll winter-over up here in zone 6, so I don't know if it'll handle zone 7 or not.

Hello Chicagopond, I have horsetail rush, chocolate aquatic mint, lousiana iris, and a few taro plants just peeking up. I will have som extra pink varigated water parsley in the future. Let me know what you need. P.S. What type of lotus do you have? Neal54

Ryan I`d like the miniature Water Lily. If interested take your pick from this list to make an equitble trade. Thalia, Pennywort, Lizzards Tail, Pontedera, Variegated Celery, Dwarf Red Stem Parrot Feather, or nice quantity of Azolla. Thanks, Xjaxx Jack jatoni@sc.rr.com