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Aquatic plants in winter. What shall I do?

aquatic plants in winter

Like every year, after summer comes autumn and then winter. Do I have to do anything to my aquatic plants in winter? Do I have to prepare the pond for winter in some way? These are the recurring questions that all our customers ask us during this season.

Aquatic plants are divided into hardy and tropical. 98% of the plants you find here on our website are hardy, i.e. they are those plants that MUST stay in the pond at all times, even in winter.

These aquatic plants in winter stop vegetating and resume in spring, like all other non-aquatic plants (oaks, roses, apple trees, etc.). Simply, you have to cut off all dry parts at the end of winter.

If you have the will and time, you can remove rotting or dried leaves of water lilies and marsh plants in autumn as they deteriorate with the arrival of cold weather, but it is not a necessary operation to do.

However, dry marsh plants give the pond a good look in winter.

By the way, there are some marsh plants that remain quite green even in winter such as Juncus effusus, Juncus inflexus, Iris pseudacorus, Iris louisiana, or that remain green below the water surface, such as Hippuris vulgaris, Preslia cervina, Sagittaria platyphylla.

The necessary thing to do, at the end of winter, is to remove all dry and rotten parts of the plants before the temperatures rise. This is because all this organic material would rot with the arrival of spring and thus generate algae.

Marsh plants should be pruned to a height of approx. 10 cm above the collar of the plant.

Tropical plants, i.e. those 2% of plants marked on our site as tropical, should be sheltered during the winter, or in warmer regions near the sea where the temperature does not drop below zero, they can remain in the pond.

If you have purchased plants through the Easy Pond Kits or through the Pond Consultation, you do not have to worry about anything, because the plants have been selected according to your climate zone, and you do not have to shelter any of them.

If, on the other hand, you purchased the plants by yourself, read the information on frost resistance contained in the data sheets for each plant here on our website.

One important thing I must point out to you in autumn is to prevent the leaves of the trees around the pond from settling at the bottom of it. This is because an excess of leaves that settle at the bottom of the pond would generate algae in the spring and could also cause an excess of ammonia resulting in fish dying. I discuss this in detail in this article.

How to prevent leaves from settling at the bottom depends on how many trees you have nearby and how big your pond is. One solution may be to rake the leaves of the plants, including on the surface of the water before they end up at the bottom, or to cover the pond with a net during this season.

This article is also available in Italiano – Deutsch – Français – Español

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