So there’s nothing you’d love more than the sight of a deep water feature in your backyard. An evening spent watching the water lilies bob on top of the pond, and counting the gigantic koi bobbing to the surface — what bliss.
OK, so there’s one little problem: You don’t have much of a yard. Perhaps just a deck, or a tiny plot of grass.
Don’t give up on the water features yet, fearless gardener. Some plants, even those that love water, were simply meant to be contained in small spaces.
Joe Tomocik, curator of water gardens for the Denver Botanic Gardens for nearly 30 years, says size really doesn’t matter when it comes to plants that love moisture.
“I’d first tell anyone to come on out to the gardens to see what can be done,” Tomocik says. “You’ll see everything from huge ponds to tiny containers. After you visit the Denver Botanic Gardens here, go to a local nursery. They’ll be focused on what will grow well in this area.”
Even if you’re not digging up your backyard for a large water feature, you’ll do well experimenting with smaller features, says Michael Morris, a manager at The Flower Bin in Longmont, where you’ll find everything from tiny bowls with single plants to containers the size and shape of bathtubs.
“As far as a container goes, it has to be sealable, so clay pots won’t work,” Morris says. “Notice that some of these containers have brackets to hold up the plants that like moisture, but don’t want to be submerged.”
And many of those plants are tropicals like cannas or water hyacinths.
The category “water gardening plants,” Tomocik will tell you, is vast. “Many are plants people don’t even think of that way. There are the obvious — like water lilies. Then there are the marginals — they like water but don’t float. And there are some that have to be kept wet but don’t need to be submerged.”
Ask him to name a few favorites, and the water gardening pro spits out names like the Denver water lily, sweet flag, water canna and aquatic mint.
But his best advice, whether you’re planting in a tiny container or a pond?
“Try a plant, and if it dies, it dies,” Tomocik says. “Most will live. But if everything you do is right, then you’re doing something wrong. The trick is, you want to get started.”
Freelance writer and editor Maria Cote gardens in Erie.
