I wanted some cypress on one side of the pond to provide strucure in the water & to use up some of the pond's nutrients. I thought that I had read that you could plant them in the water as long as the green part of the tree was not covered. I could never find anything to confirm that idea. I thought that trees in the water would maximize the knees in the water for structure & minimize the knees on land.

I found a good deal on dabay for 2 foot trees. Then grew them in about 3" of water at the ponds edge in 3 gallon pots till they were 6 feet tall. During the latter part of the second summer I put them in 4 feet of water around one side of the pond. They looked good for a month then started to yellow & soon lost all their needles. I checked the branches during the middle of the winter. They seemed brittle & dry. I was sure the the trees had died.

Surprise! Surprise! All the trees have green needles on them now & look as nice as the day I put them in the water. As I examined the trunks they seem to have become just a bit more thick during the winter months. It will be interesting to see how they do. In another post I read that they will grow more slowly when the roots are completely submerged. They had grown almost 3 feet during each summer. I wonder if they will grow better when they develop knees that are above water?

I read somewhere they actually grow better right on the outside of the water..

You can plant them in the water as long as they are not completely covered. I bought 25 bare root seedlings and planted 20 of them on two sides of my pond a month ago. They are set to end up in 1 -2 feet of water (right now high and wet) Some may be on the edge of the water, cannot totally tell until I get full pool (never been there yet)