Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Balance of plants in the environment Hybrid Lilies that won't spread deep?

Anbody know of a good hybrid lily that won't spread to the deeper areas of the pond and take over? Something that will stay 4' or less. Looking for something attactive to me and the fish to put in a new pond. Something that might take space and sunlight from the pain in the &*$ cattails and bind nutrients away from the inevitable Chara onslaught . The pond is very clear right now and dug down into the water bearing sand to maximum depth of about 14' deep. Slopes off rapidly in some places but other places will be the scene of a constant cattail battleground if I don't get something started that will shade them out or out compete with them (maybe it's impossible or impractical? ; cattails are REALLY a bad problem in the sandy soil area where my pond is located, they take over ponds quickly). Also, being entirely fed by groundwater, my 3/4 acre pond is very clear (not crystal clear; still some suspended minerals from the sand that give the water a slightly blueish cast). You can easily make out the bottom at 6' and like most other ponds in my area I suspect chara will be a problem. Although keeping cattle out of the pond area should help with the weed problem somewhat by limiting the amount of biomatter deposited into the pond area.

Anyone have any ideas? I know that lilies can be a worse headache than chara or cattails, but I am wondering if there are any hybrids out there that don't spread to deeper water and might help me combat pesky cattails and nasty chara but still provide me some fish habitat in the shallows.

Unfortunately I don't think that waterlilies are going to help control the cattails. Cattails spread by underground runners and feed the new baby shoots by means of these runners. Therefore the waterlilies will not be able to shade them out. In addition the shoots can push water lily leave right out of the way. They then rise above the water lilies to get the sunlight first.

Investing in some muskrats might be a better idea. My neighbor got rid of his by some sort of herbicide.

Greetings, Panhandle friend!
Yes, there are water lilies that grow in shallow water only. Contact a company called "Lilypons" in Brookshire, Texas, west of Houston. They will send you a catalog of their plants, with requirements for growth, limitations, etc. Four color photos, too.

SirMat: I tend to agree with Brian M., waterlilies won't compete with cattails and crowd them out. However, shallow water types are all the dwarfs, only grow in 12"-2 ft deep. They might? depending on density, help reduce chara in shallow water but definately not deeper water. If you want to crowd out cattails you have to have a shoreline/shallow water emergent plant. Cattails always start at the water line and spread from there. You need competition for space at the water line. I use mostly spikerush (there are several types short and tall), water iris, pickeral rush-plant, lizard's tail, arrowhead(short variety), zebra rush, sweet flag (I prefer varigated). All plants that stay short (to fish over) and stay shallow 6" to 18" deep.

Bill, are you saying that these plants will crowd out cattails, or at least prevent them from coming back? I really like the Louisiana water iris. Is there any drawback to them?

Ed - I doubt these plants will actually crowd out existing cattails. However if thes plants are already established it will be quite a bit harder for cattails to get a start among dense stands of other emergent vegetation.

The only draw back I have found with Louisiana w.iris is they do not spread fast enough. It takes too long to get dense stands. Otherwise they are great pond plants around the shoreline areas.

Thanks. I read someone bragging that from their little plant you can get 3'x3' plot in couple of years. Quite a bit slower than the cattails. I will just do it piece at a time and see how it goes. Also some water lilies to see if I can cool the water down a little. It was so hot, even the snakes would not come out last weekend.

Cat tails as aggressive as Typha latifolia are capable of multiplying x20 per year, spreading twenty feet or so. By year four that could be 3,200,000 if there is space and fertility to keep them going.

Any of the medium sized hybrids waterlilies, vigorous enough to cope with grazing from turtles and ducks, yet fairly easy to control would need a careful watch as they establish so on the one hand they don't get chomped by native critters, on the other hand don't get smothered by invasives like cattails.

A few varieties to look at, Carnea, Pink Sensation (pink) Chromatella, Sunrise (yellow) Conqueror, Escarboucle (red) Virginia, Richardsonii (white)

Waterlilies don't stand a chance of competing with cattails which can barge over under and around them, except in deeper areas of water where cattails may not be able to spread so easy

If there is any choice in the matter, don't let cat tails even start... Many a pond or lake is lost to those invasive plants

Regards, andy
http://www.members.aol.com/abdavisnc/swglist.html

I know I strictly control my cattails to only a small group for their otherwise beneficial purposes. I also have a couple of pesky muskrats that keep them in check. But, it is still a constant battle to keep just a small bunch, er, small.

On the subject of lily pads, are they a good thing to have in a northern pond or are they an organic problem? If so, can someone give me the specific varities to order that stay strictly in the shallow area of my pond? Bill mentioned there is a shallow depth varity or two, but wondered what names those would be under. Are they soemthing that must be planted? Just curious.