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Summary Article: Water gardening ... conservatory aquatic plants, indoor ponds, fountains,
features
As the water garden plant life withers in the gloomy short days of our long
winter and an icy grip draws a veil over the whole scene, many of us are already
yearning to be back amongst the bounteous activity that surrounds a water garden
in early summer. An expensive winter holiday in a tropical paradise in the
southern hemisphere can bring temporary respite but on return things only seem
worse. Now you want to have a piece of that tropical paradise closer to home.
Well, save the money on a few of those air tickets and build yourself a
conservatory.
If you already have a conservatory, I need not tell you the next step.
That's right, build yourself a water garden indoors.
Opportunities and ambitions for water gardens indoors A pond in the conservatory
increases the range of plants that you can grow even without any extra heating.
If you were to heat it then possibilities multiply, but it is not necessarily
how much heat you can muster, but consistency of temperature.
Any water feature, no matter how large or small, provides a focal point and
extra humidity for any of those plants that might appreciate it.
Even a small tub in a conservatory could be central to a group of plants put
together in mutual appreciation of a micro climate with the added humidity from
the water(and without creating any upheaval).
In fact you dont really have to have a real water garden; just a fountain
feature will provide some extra humidity.
There are the huge range of plants that need that extra humidity of the
waterside to flourish; exotics from the Amazon, New Guinea, Africa, Florida
carnivorous plants, bromeliads and 'air plants'.
You can then grow your own little bit of jungle.
Water lily lovers However, you may have the ambition to grow water lilies, the
types that you have previously only seen at Kew gardens or in pictures.
There are species and cultivars of lilies that are so beautiful and so fragrant
you can understand how they became the symbols of purity and enlightenment for
great religions of the East.
Here you can sample the difference between the sacred Lotus of the East, the
Nelumbo species and cultivars with their 'watering can rose' type seed heads and
the largest and showiest lilies of all, the Tropical Day Blooming cultivars that
come in all the colours of the rainbow.
For those of you that never get to see your gardens during the day because you
are working so hard to pay for their upkeep, there are the truly mysterious
night flowering varieties of waterlilies.
These specialities all require a lot of heat to flower and that can be
expensive.
But even without heat you can get the most out of plants that you can only just
get by with in an average British summer, for instance, you can get Water
Hyacinth to flower to perfection and you overwinter Water Lettuce and harvest
nuts from your Water Chestnuts.
For you fish fanciers the more delicate and highly bred forms of goldfish and
shubunkins will appreciate a home away from the strife of any inclement winter.
Heritage and water-liles and other aquatic plants There is a well worn path of
experimentation and much hard earned knowledge that comes down to us a from the
Victorian times, an age when nothing seemed impossible.
The 1st Duke of Devonshire was the first man to indulge himself in the
cultivation of aquatic plants indoors at his splendid country seat of Chatsworth
House.
It was his head gardener Joseph Paxton in 1849 who was the first to produce a
flowering plant of the enormous Victoria regia lily, Victoria amazonica, which
is no mean feat even today.
During the latter part of the 19th century Joseph Marliac-Latour was the first
man to successfully to breed hardy lilies of many shades and hues by crossing
tropical species with the hardy indigenous Nymphaea alba, its sports and a
Mexican half hardy species, N. mexicana.
What he achieved was wondrous but he never succeeded in his ambition to breed a
hardy blue Water Lily.
Blue lilies still remain very much exclusively for the tropical environment.
Today the work of Marliac-Latour has been built upon by the likes of Perry D.
Slocum, Martin E. Randig and Kenneth Landon in the United States.
They are breeding for ideals of perfection rather than hardiness.
Therefore if you want to appreciate a lot of what they have produced over recent
decades or you want to grow the Tropical species you either need to live near
them in frost free southern States or have a heated conservatory.
What do you need to provide for indoor water garden care and success Water needs
to be on tap to top up the pond when necessary.
You need shading for those few occasions that the sun does appear, to prevent
fleshy foliage from scorching.
On the whole the pond or water container does not need to be more than half a
metre deep.
The main consideration is the amount of heat you intend to provide and this is
probably strictly governed by what you can afford.
The amount of heat you provide will give you three levels of possibility or
zones on a geographical plant map.
You may consider that providing a FROST FREE conservatory is the best you can
guarantee with a minimum temperature of 4oC (40oF).
You can halve the cost of maintaining this with double or triple glazing.
Lighting requirements are such that in order to flower many of the lilies
require more than 4hrs direct sunlight per day.
How to plant aquatic plants in a conservatory pond The planting requirements are
similar for ponds out of doors with oxygenators being even more important for
water quality, shade and aeration.
Carefully plant them in hessian lined containers in aquatic soil or a heavy loam
fortified with bonemeal.
For Water-Lilies Spread out the roots of the tuber in a hole in the soil
prepared to take it and gently fill around with soil making sure the growing
point is easily visible.
Maintenance & propagation tropical water-lilies The tubers of the plants look
like a walnut and new tubers appear around the old one.
I would personally have a 'Dry run' to see how I could perform with the heating
for a winter season before I invested in a real tropicals.
Nelumbo lutea -Blue-green leaves, fragrant yellow flowers, spread 90cm.
Nelumbo nucifera - Anise fragrance, pink flowers with a yellow centre.
water plants flowers tropicals lilies temperature
conservatory fragrant Nelumbo species heat gardens Nymphaea hardy aquaticum
click to read this excellent and detailed article
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