If you want your yard’s water feature to look more like a natural pond, the pond plants you choose are crucial.
Aquatic plants are essential to any backyard pond. They add to the natural look, make it beautiful, and help filter the water so it stays cleaner and clearer.
With so many to choose from, the only problem you’ll have is deciding which ones you want! Do be careful to make sure any plants you choose aren’t considered an invasive species in your area.
Keep reading to discover 17 of the most popular pond plants for your water feature.
Five Types of Aquatic Plants
Before we dive into our list of popular pond plants, let’s first explain the types of plants that thrive in ponds. These are:
- Bog plants: These plants live around the perimeter of a pond, growing in perpetually wet soil.
- Marginal pond plants: These plants live in shallow water and sometimes share the wet soil with bog plants. Marginal plants can live in water up to six inches high.
- Floating plants: Floating plants sit on the surface of the water.
- Emergent plants: These plants root in the bottom of the pond and bloom above the surface.
- Deep water plants: These submerged plants stay below the surface and create a safe cover for any fish living in your pond.
The 17 Most Popular Pond Plants and Aquatic Plants
When planning your pond, the following plants create a lush, inviting landscape and can even help keep your pond water cleaner and clearer.
1. Creeping Jenny
The Creeping Jenny has bright leaves that look beautiful when draped over gray, wet stones. In the summer, these plants sprout small yellow flowers. Many homeowners plant the Creeping Jenny near large stones around the perimeter of the pond.
2. Corkscrew Rush
Corkscrew Rush is a bog plant that grows roughly one foot long. It looks like a nest of long spiraling green vines that reach out in all directions.
3. Yellow Flag Iris
These colorful marginal plants are easy to grow and look beautiful when in bloom. By the end of spring, your pond will be teeming with yellow petals.
4. Pickerel
Pickerel plants boast a long-lasting bloom in a variety of colors. This aquatic plant for ponds looks best when you group a few plants together, allowing their lavender, white, and blue flowers to complement each other.
You can even eat Pickerel leaves! Get the most out of this pond plant by adding the leaves to salads.
5. Pink Sensation Lilies
Pink Sensation Lilies are emergent plants that bloom on the pond’s surface. These gorgeous plants sometimes change color throughout the season and are a perfect addition to a large pond since they can become quite large.
6. Water Forget-Me-Not
These plants are perfect for the edge of your pond. They grow low and thick, making them ideal for covering up pond liners or unpleasant edges. These blue-blossoming marginal plants are a perfect secret weapon for any pond owner.
7. Horsetail Reed
These reeds can grow to two feet in height and create a visually pleasing grouping in your pond. You must monitor these plants because they spread rapidly. It’s best to cut these reeds down at the start of autumn to keep the spores from taking over your pond.
8. Arrowhead Plant
Arrowhead plants are oxygenating plants that filter the water in your pond. Their long green stems and small white flowers look great when integrated into your water feature’s ecosystem.
9. Taro Plant
Lush, green Taro plants grow to four feet in height. They add an exotic quality to your pond. However, you may have to move these tropical plants inside during the colder seasons to keep them alive.
10. Frogbit
These floating plants serve a dual purpose. Their bright green foliage alongside white petals keep your pond’s surface looking beautiful while providing shade for any animals who may live under the water.
11. Waterlily
These floating plants come in shades of pink, white, yellow, and red. Waterlilies can make your pond’s surface look beautiful, but remember that they are not low-maintenance. They require a lot of sunlight and don’t handle splashing water well. Keep them away from waterfalls or fountains you have installed in your pond.
12. Cardinal Flower
The lively mix of burgundy and red makes this plant an eye-catching addition to the border of any pond. The Cardinal flower is a great lure to attract birds to your pond. It can grow up to three feet in height!
13. Water Lettuce
This fantastic floating plant uses its roots to feed on nutrients in the water and acts as a purifier in the process. Water Lettuce is simple to grow and maintain.
14. Spiked Water Milfoil
A deep-water plant that stays below the pond’s surface its entire life, the Spiked Water Milfoil is a good plant for tadpoles to use as shelter while they grow. This plant prefers sun to shade, so don’t plant it anywhere too dark.
15. Golden Club
This perennial is a unique addition to your deep water plant collection. Its long yellow-tip white stalk sits at the center of a cluster of green leaves. Golden Club plants need a lot of sunlight while they purify your pond and keep the water clear.
16. Blue Flag Iris
While there are countless hybrids of aquatic iris plants, the Blue Flag Iris is the best pick for your pond. The Blue Flag Iris is a four-foot-tall piece of living artwork.
17. Amphibious Bistort
This marginal plant offers bright green leaves to float on your pond with flowers stretching out from the center in a cone shape toward the sky. Amphibious Bistort is a sturdy plant that grows fast.
Backyard Depot Ponds and Landscaping in Bixby, Oklahoma
If you want a pond in your yard but aren’t sure how to get started, contact Backyard Depot Ponds and Landscaping in Bixby, OK. We proudly serve Northeast Oklahoma, helping build and maintain ponds with pond plants that suit your yard and climate.
Fill out our contact form so we can start talking about your pond needs!