Propagate pond plants and repotting

Propagate pond plants to make more plants cheaply to extend the amount of planting in your pond.

Propagating options are:

1. Seed raising
2. Division of clump forming plants
3. Stem cuttings
4. Bulbil collection

What you will need:

1. Clay based Aquatic compost
2. Mesh baskets
3. Scissors
4. Knife
5. Feed balls for Aquatic plants

Repotting or growing more plants for a pond:

Our plants are correctly planted in aquatic compost and mesh baskets ready for you to lower into the water when they arrive.

Aquatic compost:

• Use a clay/loam mix aquatic compost for aquatic plants.
• Aquatic compost should hold together when squeezed.
• Do not use ordinary, multipurpose potting compost for pond plants as this is too light and may contain peat or coir
• Aquatic soil is available in bags in most garden centres and should be brown not black.
• For Internet sales Search for clay loam compost (Try Pitchcare for Kaloam or County clay loam - nearest in small bags to the one we use)

Mesh baskets:

• Pond plants grow in mesh aquatic baskets.
• Mesh baskets are available in various sizes and allow water to circulate through the compost allowing the transfer of oxygen and nutrients between the water and the plant.
  
• Plant roots escape through the mesh holes from inside the basket and stretch out into the water to gain more nutrients from the water.
• Move a plant into a larger mesh basket when it grows and use aquatic compost or washed gravel.

Top tips on how to repot or propagate all pond plants:

1. Pond plant roots will rot if confined in too small a space - cut back all root growth to the height of the basket you are repotting into so they are not squashed.
2. Add Feed balls when repotting to boost plant growth - 1 Feed ball per 11cm basket (1 litre of compost) or 1 XL feed balls for aquatic plants  for large baskets.
3. Press firmly down to avoid loose soil floating in water & place newly potted plants on a shallow shelf until roots show through the mesh basket.

Methods to propagate pond plant species:

*Named varieties of  Butomus or Iris will not come true from seed and must be propagated by division.

Seed raising:

Top tip: Collect fresh seed in paper bag (not plastic) as soon as ready & falling naturally.
1. Sow as soon as possible after collection in seed or plug tray.
2. Use good quality Seed Compost and place seed tray in tray of shallow water.
3. Some seeds can take a season to germinate so have patience and do not throw the tray away too early.
4. Pot into larger mesh baskets when mature.

Plant Division:

Top tip: Propagate Spring and Summer flowering pond plants by division soon after flowering, when still in active growth.
Divide late flowering plants next Spring.

Remove any old growth with care - the outer dead leaf may be protecting new growth. Unwrap before cutting back.

1. Cut down top growth of plant foliage to 25cm/6" high.
2. Caltha palustris clump - Tease apart the different parts of the plant crown using your hands
3. Butomus rhizomes - Separate and break the rhizomes into individual pieces. Lay out pieces of hard rhizome as a layer on compost and cover completely to repot.
4. Iris - Use a knife to divide a rhizome to split into sections - find a place between rhizomes or crowns so each piece has roots and shoots. (Iris should be left as fans of 3 shoots).
5. Pontederia or Iris - Plants grow away from the old rhizome so cut the old, bare section off so it does not rot away in the basket

Top tip: Do not split any plants too small in one go.
5. Trim any fleshy white roots to the height of the new basket to avoid squashing into the basket.
6. Pot into mesh baskets using clay based aquatic compost and a Feed balls for Aquatic plants
7. Ensure the roots are slightly spread out within the basket.
8. Get the compost between the roots. Do not keep them as a 'lump'.
9. Ensure that the crown of the plant is not buried too far below the surface of the compost when pressing down.

Runner cuttings/Stem cuttings:

Top tip: Take runner cuttings when the plant has outgrown its space and you have roots growing into the water from a leaf node.

Runner cuttings on rafting plants:

1. Cut sections from the growing stem of the plant so each section contains a shoot and a portion of stem with root growth.
2. Gather either 3-4 small plantlets together if dealing with Veronica beccabunga or Oenanthe javanica Flamingo or a small handful of very fine Rorippa nasturtium aquaticum leaf, stem and root growth. Anemopsis californica plantlets can be potted singly or a maximum of 2 per basket.
3. Pot on rooted plantlets into a mesh basket & aquatic soil with a feed ball.
4. Place in shallow water until roots show through the mesh

Stem cuttings of upright plants:

Top tip: Take stem cuttings before the stem gets hard & before flower buds form.

1. Cut a 4", non-flowering portion from the growing tip of the plant just below a leaf junction (node).
2. Strip any leaves from the bottom half of the stem cutting.
3. Place in water and keep propped upright.
4. When rooted at the node(leaf junction), pot up 3 -5 stems in a mesh basket with aquatic compost and a feed ball.

Bulbils:

Top tip: Collect Sagittaria bulbils in late Summer or Autumn.

1. You will see them around the outside of the mesh basket.
2. Pot deep down in new mesh baskets of aquatic compost.
3. The parent basket of Sagittaria may or may not flower again next year. Each will provide many turions for repotting.

4. Divide Hesperantha bulbils in Spring after flowering in Autumn.