So-called floating plants not only have a decorative but also an intensive water-clarifying effect in the garden pond. So you benefit from the floating sympathizers in two ways.
Which floating plants are suitable for the pond?
Floating plants in the pond are attractive and useful because they absorb nutrients directly from the water and thus help clarify the water. Popular species include frogbite, seaweed fern, small duckweed, mussel flower, water hyacinth and star liverwort.
What’s special about floating plants
Floating plants are aquatic plants that have adapted to an actually very precarious niche in the water environment: they thrive between the water surface and the bottom of the water, so to speak, right in the middle. Their leaves and flowers float on or just below the surface of the water, but their roots are not anchored to the bottom of the water like water lilies. So they really swim and can therefore only live in completely stagnant waters.
The water must also be rich in nutrients. Because floating plants are not anchored to the ground, they only absorb their food directly through the water. For this reason, floating plants are very interesting for garden ponds. The condition of stagnant water is completely fulfilled, so that frog bites etc. can be used to design ponds to your heart's content.
At the same time, a win-win situation arises between floating plants and garden pond owners when it comes to nutrient regulation: While the former are grateful for the nutrient content in the water, which is usually difficult to keep low anyway, the latter are happy about its free use.
So what makes floating plants so attractive to you:
- Beautiful, natural jewelry value
- Are optimally adapted to the conditions of the garden pond
- We are only too happy to use excess nutrients directly from the water
Floating plants with different properties
The particularly attractive and easy-to-clean floating plants include:
- Froschbits – very pretty, native floating plant with small, water lily-like floating leaves and white flowers. It absorbs a lot of nutrients through its fine root hairs
- Algae fern - comes from the tropics and is therefore not hardy - but is blessed with extremely pretty, flat-scaled leaves that turn deep red in autumn
- Small duckweed - native floating plant that forms a dense, fresh green carpet of small, lens-shaped leaf groups. However, because of its shading effect, it must be lightened regularly. It has an extremely clarifying effect.
- Shell flower - very decorative, shell-shaped hollowed out leaf rosettes on the water surface. Intensively utilizes nutrients, but not hardy
- Water hyacinth – can bloom beautifully, but only in warm, humid conditions. In addition, the tropical plants must be overwintered indoors
- Star liver moss – a very attractive, hardy, submerged structural plant with distinctive forked branching. However, it can easily be displaced by vigorous neighbors such as duckweed
