Last Updated: 1/23/14

See my Pond Showcase page on this pond.

2000:

In July of 2000, I placed a 2 gallon Lerio pot, which I normally use to pot up marginals, inside of a stone pot with goldfish on it. To this, I added excess parrot feather, water poppy, water forget- me-not, and duckweed. Later, mosquito dunks were added to keep mosquito larvae from using it. The parrot feather took over, and the raccoon used it as his/her personal wash basin. My outdoor cat thought it was a great place to drink.

2001:

I did not plan to set it up for 2001 but ended up putting some hardy canna (Thalia dealbata) in it that my mother bought since I already have it in my main pond. I also put in some duckweed and a piece of pennywort. On 10/28/01, I just plopped this "pond" into my main pond for winter. The Lerio pot was stuck in the planter though! I will not put "pot-busters" in this pond again. "Pot-busters" are plants like hardy canna, iris, cattails, and sweetflag that warp pots in a single summer with their large tubers or rhizomes trying to "escape" the pot.

2002:

My mother wanted me to set this "pond" up again for 2002 so on 6/29/02, I put in a tropical yellow water canna (I know; it's a pot buster too!) that I had bought three days earlier. I filled the pot half way with dirt, put in the canna, and topped with pea gravel. I also put in some frogbit (a floating plant) from my 50 gallon tank. It is not doing very good especially since my cat chewed it up while it was waiting inside. It finally put out a few more leaves. I put in a small fake pink water lily. The frogbit died off but some duckweed started to grow. The raccoon washes his hands in this tub pond almost every night and spills out half the water!

The canna bloomed in August. Here are two photos of the flower taken on 8/25/02.
Yellow canna in 2 gallon pot pond with the pool behind it.
Close-up of yellow canna flowers.

The canna was moved inside for winter on 10/5/02 and put into my 20 gallon indoor tub pond. It did not survive.

2003:

I did not particularly want to set this pond up again but I got a free tropical canna with a plant order. I put it into a 2 gallon Lerio pot and put that into the fishy container. I wonder what color it is. IF it blooms, I will find out! By 7/31/03, it was getting so huge! No flowers yet though. The flowers opened on 8/15/03. They were orange and yellow! So beautiful, I was surprised. Here are some photos. On 9/10/03, the plant sent up another flower spike!
Canna flowers on 8/16/03.
2-gallon pot pond with flowering canna on 8/16/03.

I removed the canna, cut it back, cut the roots up into 12 rhizomes, and stored them in slightly damp sphagnum moss for the winter on 10/26/03. See my November 2003 newsletter for more details. It was no easy task!

2004:

On 5/5/04, I moved a tropical black taro that I overwintered in the basement to this 2 gallon pond. Every night after that, the raccoon uprooted the plant and dug the gravel all around! I do not think the plant will take it much longer! Then, the raccoon did not hurt it as much, and it grew until one day, the deer ate it all! I stuck the root back in and moved it further onto the deck where it came back to life somewhat. By 10/10/04, the black taro was doing pretty good out of reach of the deer. I pulled it out of the pot, repotted it, and put in into the basement for the winter. Due to a lack of room in the indoor tub pond, it is sitting by itself with some water in the two gallon pot. In that condition, it lost all of its black color and looks like regular taro!

2005:

On 5/8/05, I put the black taro back out in the 2 gallon pot "pond." It is alive but not in great shape. As of 6/2/05, it is still alive but the raccoons un-pot it virtually every night so it is not really growing! On 10/16/05, I moved the taro inside for the winter. I had to sort of repot it since the raccoons had dug around in it. Plus, to get it out of the ceramic pot, I had to pull it out of the Lerio black pot, warp that pot to get it out of the ceramic pot, and then repot it.

2006:

On 5/10/06, I put the black taro into the pot pond. It is nearly dead from aphids. I sprayed it with Pyola. By 6/1/06, it is starting to recover. By the time I brought the taro inside for the fall and winter on 10/8/06, it was doing really well.

2007:

I put the taro out in the pot on 5/8/07. The next morning, the raccoon had dumped it out of the pot so I had to try to stick it back in.

I have not set up this pond since 2007.

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