Ponder This: Changes to the Bog

Well, shoot, I can't find any pictures of the pond from earlier this year to show how overgrown the gravel bog filterhad become with Colocasia, Louisiana iris and Blue Rush. (The Head Gardener says it might help if I'd tag the pictures when I uploaded them to the computer.) I asked my handy dandy pond guy, Justin Bristol of Pond Pros of Houston, to stop by and clean it out a bit ... the plants were large and well-rooted enough that I didn't want to risk injuring my back trying to get them out. A couple of days later, though, I decided I still wasn't happy with the way it looked, threw caution to the wind, and pulled up what was left. Then I went shopping!

A visit with the one and only Cramer at Nelson's Water Gardens in Katy provided the inspiration and encouragement needed to be more adventurous in my choices of plants for the bog. Cramer showed me a planting he'd done in a gravel bog at the nursery, using a variety of bedding plants and perennials, including torenia, scaevola and gomphrena. Incredible as it sounds, he also has an agave that's been growing in that bog for about 3 years. So I wandered the nursery in search of plants that I thought might be able to take the conditions ... when I was done, I had a purple-leafed coleus, a QIS Carmine gomphrena, a  White Swan Echinacea, and a scaevola. I also added one true bog plant, Dwarf Acorus.

I'm mostly happy with the results, although I do need something in
front of that pipe on the right. I added some smaller Louisiana irises
from my personal plant inventory and left some of the water
purslane already growing in the bog.

Here's a closer look.  The other thing I'd like to camouflage
is the black pond liner.  I wonder if adding some larger river rocks
at the back would interfere with the bog's filtering abilities?

And because it's so very lovely, here's a closeup of the 'Colorado' water lily, 
a gift from Jackie of Southern Post Journal.  Who's that pollinator hanging 
out on one petal?  

I'll do a follow-up post in a few weeks on how the planting does. Here's hoping it will be a positive report!