Aquatic Environments: Selecting Healthy Aquatic Plants

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Rich Binsacca

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Aquatic plants are adapted by nature to live in different environments. In water gardens, risers are used to position plants at the proper depth. Aquatic plant types include (left to right) deep-water submersibles, surface floaters, deep-depth marginals, above-water floaters and shallow-depth marginals. (Not shown: submerged oxygenators or shoreline plants.)

You’ll choose and use plants in your water garden for both aesthetic and practical reasons. The first consideration is the aquatic environment you want to plant. Aquatic plants are defined by where they grow: on the shoreline, on top of the water or submerged within the water garden itself.

The next consideration is the same as for any garden: your site and climate conditions. You must choose plants that will thrive in your area/USDA Hardiness Zone with the level of sun, shade and wind found in your water garden.

No matter what kind of garden you grow, plants require a certain pH from the soil or water wherever they live. The pH scale measures acidity and alkalinity from 0-14, with 7.0 being neutral. Lower numbers indicate acid conditions, higher numbers alkaline. Relative acidity affects a plant’s ability to absorb nutrients. Test your water garden’s soil and water prior to introducing plants to it.

Aquatic nursery and garden center staff, as well as your local Cooperative Extension Service, can help you determine which plants are likely to thrive in your garden and suit your aquatic objectives.

Aquatic plants should be selected and cultivated in a careful ratio to achieve proper balance and a desirable effect. These species have a propensity to colonize quickly. Because plants growing in the water play a role in maintaining water quality, they must be thinned and pruned constantly to maintain proper oxygen levels, balanced water quality and to avoid algae from taking over. Always choose aquatic plants based on their mature height and spread in order to keep them in scale with the size of your water garden. Even small water plants can quickly grow in a hospitable water feature with ample sunlight, warmth and nutrients.

Finally, as with picking any garden plant, it’s crucial that the aquatics you pick for your water garden are healthy from the very start. Take the steps shown in the following pictures and explained in their captions when choosing healthy plants suited to your water garden and climate to ensure your feature stays afloat with promise!

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Step 1: Make a list of the plants you’d like for each aquatic category best suited to your theme, your garden’s USDA hardiness zone and your garden plan.

Facts

The correct ratio of aquatic plants to water feature area is key to achieving healthy water quality and an overall nurturing environment for plants, fish and other living aspects of your water garden. By maintaining the following ratio of plants for each 50 square feet of water surface area, you’ll provide aesthetic and practical benefits while keeping aggressive varieties in check:
- Surface floaters = 6
- Submerged oxygenators = 15 bunches
- Shallow-depth marginals = 3
- Deep-depth marginals = 3
- Deep-water submersibles = 1
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The US Department of Agriculture has divided the world into 11 zones based on their average minimum annual temperatures. These zones roughly predict which plants will survive in a given area. As with picking any plant for your garden, you should choose aquatic plants that suit the plant hardiness zone of your water garden.
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Tips

Aquatic nurseries often display plants in settings similar to those often found in a home water garden. Check each plant’s care tag for additional information about its specific culture and growth habits to ensure it’s a plant that will likely do well in your garden.

Resources

New to the world of aquatics? Visit the Learn2Grow Plant Database to learn more about specific water garden species, as well as visit a local garden center or nursery that specializes in aquatic plants.
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Preparing the Soil for Your Aquatic Plants
It’s no secret that water gardens are beautiful, but under the surface lies all the “dirt” behind the beauty: soil. Learn two quick step-by-step demonstrations for properly preparing the soil that shoreline, marginal and submerged aquatic plants prefer in order to thrive.
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Planting aquatics in specialized baskets and containers makes pond maintenance and plant care easier, as well as allows constant water circulation and helps prevent erosion. Learn the easy steps to properly preparing these containers for planting.

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