Poorly growing pond plant

[boogieman84]

Hi,

Last year I made a small pond and planted(in small pond pots) a variety of pond plants within it. Some seem to doing ok, I have had a marsh marigold in flower and another type of reed doing well however 2 plants which are of the same species seem to be doing really badly:



One seems slightly better than the other however neither look well. Should I cut off the dying part or leave it alone, I think they may be either bog bean or branched burr reed.

Many thanks

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by boogieman84

Hi,

Last year I made a small pond and planted(in small pond pots) a variety of pond plants within it. Some seem to doing ok, I have had a marsh marigold in flower and another type of reed doing well however 2 plants which are of the same species seem to be doing really badly:

One seems slightly better than the other however neither look well. Should I cut off the dying part or leave it alone, I think they may be either bog bean or branched burr reed.

Many thanks

The first thing I would do is to get hold of the single shoot in each pot and give them a gentle tug, if they come away in your hands and are 'squishy', then they have probably had it!

If however they are firmly rooted and the stems are solid, I should give them a few more weeks before you decide the next step, (keep or replace).
Dorts.

[boogieman84]

Hi,

I did try this and they were pretty firm. However I wondered why they seemed to be browning on the top, I've never had a pond before so was unsure how you deal with pond plants, can you prune them like other plants or if not how should they be treated?

many thanks

[Kayleigh]

You could try putting them on a window sill on a saucer of water to see if the warmth of the house will spur them into growth or leave them alone to see what happens I would not re-pot them until you see growth..
pond plants can be split if they get too big..

[boogieman84]

I just pulled the worse off plant out to check it and there is a tiny side shoot with a small leaf on it so hopefully they are ok! I was just confused as to why it was browning

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by boogieman84

I just pulled the worse off plant out to check it and there is a tiny side shoot with a small leaf on it so hopefully they are ok! I was just confused as to why it was browning

Those 'tiny side shoots' are a good sign. I shouldn't worry about any pruning of the 'die-back' until the little shoots get going, then you could safely cut off the dead bits.
Dorts.

[Kayleigh]

Some die down in the winter and come back in the spring just like herbaceous plants do in the garden.

[tom00_uk]

if you after a quick answer,
lift it and empty it from the pot and check the roots,

I had a bog bean like this and cut the root in half, now have two plants after leaving the roots in the warmth of the green house in a shallow amount of water in a ice cream tub etc with out any soil to speed up the sprouting