| I have lots of wasps flying around the pond. Any suggestions.
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| There are some good ways to get rid of wasps. Early in the season hang a fake nest nearby. (They look like a brown Chinese lantern) You can purchase them for a few dollars but a blown up brown paper bag works too. Wasps are territorial and will not build near another nest. Now that you obviously have a nest near you’ll have to put up a trap. Also check that you don’t have a dead fish somewhere, something must be attracting them.
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| I was wondering if was safe to wash my pond plants with insecticide soap and how long should I keep them out of the pond. They are heavily infested with aphids. |
| Yes that should be fine. I’d give them a rinse before I put them back in. The only plants that don’t like insecticide soap are water lettuce. The soap breaks the water tension and they get all floppy and sink (learned that the hard way). Often just a plain old good rinse in the pond works well. The fish will eat the aphids. |
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| Now, all is well in the pond except the water hyacinths. I think they took the brunt of the water cycling and the huge weather changes have left them looking quite sad. Sue |
| Hi sue, there could be several issues effecting the WH. Possible pH too high or maybe just not enough nutrients. Try taking out some of the babie hyacinths and putting them in a bucket with a little fertilizer in the water. (miracle grow or really anything on hand). Let them sit for a week or so and see if it makes a difference. |
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| Please send me some information on wintering the following water plants which I purchased from you.
The Egyptian Papyrus,Cana Lily |
| Hi Barb, both will not over winter in your pond. The Cana can sometimes overwinter in the garden if you dig it in the ground in a protected area (against the house?) and mulch it well, otherwise cut it down and bring it into the garage or other warmer place. Store barely moist. Repot in spring fertilize well. If you are going to use it in the pond do not put it into the pond too early and use a water plant mix to repot it in. It will also grow well in the yard in a moist location (or dry and water very frequently). The Egyptian Papyrus is a little harder; it gets so big (as you’ve probably noticed). Chop it down and keep indoors until no more chance of frost (as with Cana, barely moist). I would chop off the outside growing points next spring and repot those instead of the whole plant. You can also try collecting the seed. We will be hosting a complementary potting seminar next April at the store, I’ll keep you posted. We also have water plant soil mix (regular peat based mixes are NOT good for the pond) and fertilizer tabs available at the store. Also we have a new variety of Papyrus coming up next spring. It is not so seedy and a little sturdier. Caroline |
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| I purchased two pond planters from you with about 3 or 4 pond plants in them. They were just perfect for my pond. I'll only buy a container from now on as they looked really good and were very stable and didn't fall over all the time.
Now for my question...... can they be wintered over in the green house? If so, how? I keep my green house just above freezing.
Thanks for helping me out in this matter.
Barb Stark
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| Hi, Yes I would winter them in the greenhouse. But I would store them barely moist as opposed to in water. It also depends on the plant selection in the mixed baskets. If there are any tropical’s in there they probably will not survive unless the greenhouse is kept a 15 C. Next spring I would suggest pulling them all apart and repotting them (with fertilizer tabs) any way. You can always rearrange and add at that time. We will be hosting a free ‘potting’ seminar in April, I’ll keep you posted, Caroline |
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| Ask him any pond related topic via email |
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