New Colors Of Pickerel Pond Plants

Pickerel weed (Pontederia Cordata), also called pickerel rush, is a native North American pond plant. It's a common shallow water marginal aquatic plant with striking purple or blue hued flower spikes and narrow heart-shaped leaves. It grows 1.5-3 feet tall, thrives in container water gardens, and blooms summer through fall. Pickerel Rush ^#Ad is a perfect, easy to grow emergent plant for small ponds, patio water features, and balcony setups.

Various Pickerel Plant Blossom Colors

Another advantage of Pontederia Cordata for container gardeners is color variety. Most aquatic nurseries typically offer the classic purple/blue flower variety, but there are white pickerel weed ('Alba') ^#Ad as well as pink pickerel rush ^#Ad plants ('Pink Pons' or 'Singapore Pink') — giving you more water garden color design options for small patio pond setups. Try one of each - all three colors in a single 8"-10" planting pot - and you'll have a lifetime supply by the end of summer.

Pickerel Weed's Big Brother

By the way, there's also another variant: Pontederia Lanceolata. The giant Lance-Leafed Pickerel is native to Central and South America as well as US southeastern states. At 3-5 feet tall, the lance-leaf pickerel rush is way too big for most container pond setups. P. Lanceolata has interesting knife-shaped leaves with much more sizable and impressive flower spikes the size of a hot dog, but is only commercially available in the standard purple-blue form.

Right Size For Tub Water Gardening

For container tub water gardens, Pontederia cordata (common pickerelweed) is the better choice. It stays compact, has manageable roots, and blooms reliably in confined spaces. Save P. lanceolata for larger setups, or perhaps a clump in it's own specimen tub garden. It's gorgeous, but will quickly outgrow and overwhelm small containers or mini-ponds.

Growing And Propagating Pickerels

Both species of pickeral plants are easily growable in Zones 3-10, ranging from the Canadian border on down. They're quite winter hardy in most climates. They're not fond of deep water over 12 inches, so you'll only see them growing along the very margins of lakes and ponds. Just 2"-8" water depth is all they need in a mini-pond setup. Even here in the hot, low desert, pickerals will die back to the mud-line over the cooler winter months, but new shoots will reemerge in the spring. The thick, starchy roots send off side shoots near the crown throughout the growing season. They grow so vigorously you can divide them at any time. The Waterlily Bear often prunes off and composts the oldest parts of the rhizome, and just keeps the top two inches near the crown when I repot in the spring.