The pond at my church is new, less than 6 month old and it already has water primrose with yellow flowers around the shoreline. Looks nice from the road but it seems to be doing really well and the pond now has a half of dozen spots where it is growing around the pond. Does it spread by fragmentation? Anyone? So, I was wondering about adding some to my pond where the only plant I have is Am Pondweed in 5 small patches. My pond has always been pretty fertile so I need some plants to take up excess nutrients. Would you add it to a pond that needs some vegetation? I have deer that I am sure will eat it because I saw deer tracks at the church pond where the primrose was. Any advise about the primrose?

Yes it spreads by fragmentation. If your pond has steep sides and is fairly deep it'd probably be OK, but there's tons of horror stories on this forum of that plant totally taking over shallow BOWs with gradual bottom slope. It'll grow out a long ways if it can reach bottom.

I have it in both my ponds and it does exactly what you describe - absorbs excess nutrients. It's also a great habitat for small invertebrates and YOY fish. But my ponds are deep and my banks are steep.

So as is so often said here....it depends.

Tracy, dlowrance pretty well nailed it. I love it, and it's a preferred plant here, but we fish out of a boat most of the time.

It can get leggy if the water level remains consistent, but it's extremely easy to control, and if we want to remove it in a problem area, I usually just rake a patch up on the bank, wait a couple of days, then throw it in the compost pile. We rarely treat it, but if we do, a glyphosate works well.

You need to come up here and get some hybrid lilies. They provide shade, spread slowly but consistently, and reload with LMB almost as fast as you can catch them.

Thanks Dale, you told me of things I was hoping it did not do. But after seeing it in the church's pond I was pretty sure it spread through fragmentation and I only have one shoreline that would be considered not steep and that is the area where most wade or swim or relax. I think I will keep looking for less aggressive native plants around here.

Thanks Al, will do.

Tracy, I have chara available if you'd like some. Pretty good plant, YOY fish love it, grows from the bottom up. Will help keep other plants from growing that you don't want.

Thanks Frank, I know the name and have seen it growing in ponds and lakes but am really not familiar with what all it does when it comes to spreading and depths it might grow in. When taking up roots on the bottom, will it grow to the waters surface or top off a foot or two above the ponds bottom. Overall performance?


In my pond that is now almost 4 yrs old, the pond was fertilized the first two yrs and not the 3rd yr. It controlled sunlight penetration to the ponds bottom, so really had no plant growth. And was heavily stocked with crawfish. They also denuded the pond. This past year I treated with Alum Sulfate and that seemed to tie up the phosphates and the water cleared and now runs from 26 t 30" of visibility. It's a good time to try and get some plants going. I have 5 small patches of Am. Pondweed and I love that plant, it always holds lmb close by when it has a good stand. I thought I lost it this past winter but it did come back.