PLANTS WITH PURPOSE

Bring life and colour to your pond with carefully chosen plants. Carol Klein explains how to choose the right ones

-  Carol Klein

Pond plants

When we bring water into our gardens, there is a whole new vocabulary of plants to discover. In common with all our plants, wild and cultivated, they live by natural laws but the rules for their cultivation and care are slightly different. Plants that live under the water derive nutrients from that water, some also have wide, thin leaves that can utilize sunlight easily and air-filled cells in their leaves and stems.

The waterlily is one of our most beautiful aquatic plants. Its ancient relatives were among the earliest flowering plants on Earth and their evolution and adaptations were so successful that they still look much the same to this day. And we are lucky enough to be in a position to offer waterlilies, and many other wetland plants, a home in our garden ponds.

Wetlands support some of our most outstanding wildflowers, from the golden globes of kingcups to the exotic blooms of waterlilies. Without them our natural world is a poorer place. In our gardens too, water is not just an asset, it transforms - its effect is magical. The moment you add the element of water to your garden, its reality changes.

Water is the extra ingredient that brings enchantment in its wake. It can be tranquil - "as still as a mill pond" - reflecting the scene around it and creating a double reality. It can move gently, almost imperceptibly, or it can rage and torrent. Water adds sound, splashes, and bubbles, swishes and gurgles, a new dimension, it brings a garden to life.

We all acknowledge what an important element of our gardens it forms - without its presence our soil would bake and our plants shrivel. But to glorify it for its own sake in the form of a pond, stream, sink, trough, or even a bowl, to separate it so we can appreciate it fully, is a hugely rewarding exercise.