Our show news and pond owner's calendar 

July 2010 - As this month has progressed the waterlilies have flowered well in the good sunshine. Many different coloured flowers are available from white and yellow to pink and red in a range of sizes to suit any pond or container pond. Remember they will not flower well if they are being splashed from fountains or waterfalls.

Underneath the safety of the waterlily leaves the developing frog and toad tadpoles and newt larvae should be reaching the stage when they will soon be ready to leave the pond and try surviving on land. But cover for maturing creatures can be obtained by using free-floating plants as well as waterlilies. Plant cover should extend across a half to two thirds of the pond area so that the pond skaters and water boatmen that visit still have free water in which to operate.

Our Native Frobit is now flowering on the water surface with its small 1" leaves and white flowers and the Water Soldiers are spiking out of the water with their pineapple-head like fronds. An annual water covering plant is the Water Hyacinth which spreads quickly but will not always flower in this country as it is from the warmer areas of the world and likes plenty of heat. In its one season of growth it covers surface area well and helps inhibit green algae growth by using surplus nutrients from the pond water.

June 2010 - This month has been very hot at times and ponds need to be topped up with water due to high levels of evaporation. By now the waterlilies leaves should have reached the surface of the water and by spreading out they will help to keep the water temperature low and reduce some of the evaporation. They will flower well if this sunshine continues.

The bright coloured flowers for the month of June are the Iris. There are many different flower colours to choose from and we have them flowering from late May - the versicolors are always the first, through June with the pseudacorus and laevigata varieties and into July with the louisianas. The upright foliage of the Iris is both a structural feature in the pond and also a route out of the pond for the emerging dragonfly larvae that will climb up the stems and emerge from their casings as adults.

Chelsea exhibit 2010 - We received a Silver Gilt medal after a rejudging process on Thursday at Chelsea even though we were given a Silver medal originally. Here we show a photo from above the exhibit which gives a wonderful view of the whole stand.

May 2010 - As the water continues to warm up the surface cover plants are vital in protecting the water from heating up too quickly. The most expected surface cover plant for the pond is the waterlily but as they come from well below the water level they are not very widely spread on the surface yet.

For cover in May the rafting plants give a variety of leaf forms and flower and they send their trailing stems across the water using nutrients as they root out and give protection for wildlife as well as surface cover. The plants in this group are  Mentha aquatica, Veronica beccabunga, Myosotis scirpoides, Menyanthes trifoliata and Calla palustris. All these are British Natives.

Some rafting plants that are more colourful in their foliage are Oeanthe javanica Flamingo (pink and cream) and Houttuynia cordata Chameleon (red and yellow) both grow vigorously to create a raft of soft stems that the tadpoles will relish and leaf growth for colour and cover but these are not British Natives.

April 2010 - What a difference a month makes!  It has been warm and sunny in our pond and the frogs have been and gone leaving the tell tale mounds of spawn behind them on the top marginal shelf. The tadpoles are starting to emerge from the spawn and swim freely so protection from predators by providing surface cover oxygenating plants or larger leaved surface growing Water Hawthorn is important. The Water Hawthorn is also flowering well now on the pond surface. In their early days the tadpoles will start to use any small amounts of blanketweed the pond may have as their first food supply.

The newts arrival back into the pond from hibernation is not as obvious but check the leaves on the water level of small leaf plants such as Myosotis scirpioides, Veronica beccabunga or Caltha palustris Alba. The female newts will fold them over to protect the eggs if there has been mating in the pond. We have seen newts in courtship this month but not yet seen the resulting egg signs.

As yet there are no signs of toad spawn - the long strings of spawn are usually wrapped around oxygenating plants and the roots of marginal plants at a depth of about 1 foot of water.

The marginal plants flowering in the pond this month are the Caltha species in all sizes from the giant Stagnalis that roots and forms a new plant from each flower stem to the small clump forming Alba that likes to be in water but not submerged. The native Caltha palustris and the double flowering form complete the selection for bright flower colour in April.

March 2010 - It should start to warm up soon and when it does we need to be ready. Pond pumps and filters should be cleaned and started again as soon as the ice is thawed on the pond.

Now is the time to add Barleystraw pouches to the pond so that they have time to activate before the warm weather comes. They take about a month to provide an inhibitor effect to the blanketweed or single cell green algae that will start to grow if it has the chance when the top surface of water warms up.

The other job when the ice has cleared is to check the volume and condition of your submerged oxygenating plants. They should be green and healthy not black or clear stemmed and they should occupy about 30% of your pond volume. You may need to remove some decaying plants and replace with fresh ones. Please dispose of your unwanted pond plants carefully in your compost heap and do not throw them in other water areas. (Be Plant Wise).

The submerged oxygenators are vital at this time of year as they use nutrients in the pond water and act as competition to the greenwater algae. If you have plenty of active oxygeators you stand a chance of starving out the algae growths.

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The Be plantwise campaign by Defra and the Scottish Government launched by Charlie Dimmock in February 2010 wants to raise gardeners awareness about the threat of invasive non native plants, which can take over your pond and damage the environment if they become established in the wild. The campaign has 3 messages:

1. Know what you grow: Key invasive plants to avoid are:
Parrots Feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum),Floating Pennywort (Hydrocotyle ranunculoides),Australian Swamp Stonecrop (Crassula helmsii),Water Primrose (Ludwigia grandiflora),Water Fern (Azolla filiculoides).
We do not sell species from this invasive plants list.

2. Compost with Care: Don’t dump aquatic plants in the wild - you could be breaking the law. Always dispose of old plants and pond material responsibly, by composting or using a green waste bin. By composting excess pond plants carefully, we can all help the environment and reduce costs. 

3. Stop the Spread: Be careful if you move pond plants around – even tiny fragments can cause massive problems. Take care when maintaining your pond or disposing of waste water.

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February 2010 - There has been ice on the pond for most of this month and even though we kept an area of ice thawed every day we have lost a number of frogs. They floated to the surface once the rest of the ice thawed. This is thought to be related to the amount of oxygen in the water. The blanket of snow blocked out the light so the oxygenating plants were unable to photosynthesize in the darkness and this combined with continued decaying of vegetation in a sealed environment could have reduced the levels of oxygen in the water and killed the frogs. We only lost one fish through the winter - they must have remained deeper and less active than the frogs. The birds appreciated our efforts and visited the thawed area of water to bathe in.

A survey has been undertaken by http://www.pondconservation.org.uk/ to find the effects of this harsh winter on our pond creatures and we look forward to reading the results.

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Our 2010 plans include our first venture into The Chelsea Flower Show. We will be exhibiting our Pond display in the Grand Floral Pavilion. We look forward to meeting all our more southerly based customers there. For our full list of Shows for 2010 see the Shows page.

2009 has been a good year for mail order through this website. The redesign last winter has proved popular and more customers feel happy to purchase their pond plants by mail order. Our service of supplying ready rooted pond plants rather than bareroot pieces in need of potting by the customer has also been well received.

As 2009 nears its end we have won more medals - Tatton Park was a Gold Medal winning display as were Harrogate and Southport. Silver Gilt at RHS Malvern Spring, NEC Gardeners World and for our first display at Hampton Court. Also at Tatton Park our pond containers were used in the Finchale College Back to Back Show Garden.

This favourite view of the stand was photographed by many visitors to the Show and features the smaller of our container ponds planted with 4 baskets of Anemopsis californica for mass effect. You can follow the links to find these products available for sale on the website.

In 2008 we achieved a major goal - RHS Gold Medals at all 3 of the shows we exhibited at (Malvern, NEC Gardener's World and Tatton Park). We also won Gold at Harrogate, The Royal Show and Shrewsbury Flower Shows.

July 2008 - The Garden magazine (The RHS Journal) printed an article written by Roy Lancaster following his visit to Waterside Nursery earlier in the year.

"The fine range of plants for ponds and steamsides offered by Waterside Nursery in Leicestershire took Roy Lancaster back to days when he first began appreciacting aquatic plants".......

To read this article open each page listed below:       

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Malvern Spring Show 2008 and Waterside Nursery won its first RHS Gold Medal for Aquatic Plants. Linda proudly holds the Gold Medal in front of the display.