Floating Plants
Another advantage of miniature pools is that any of the attractive surface plants that multiply too fast can be easily scooped out as often as you wish. And they are unusually attractive in forms, colors, and textures. Feeding from nutrients in solution in the water, they make shade for fish, and their dangling roots provide a safe place for fish to spawn. Simply drop the plants in the water and let them grow. Or, if you want them to raise a family, put some soil in a shallow spot where the roots can anchor. Most are annuals, to be bought each year.
Oxygenating Plants
These are aquatics that grow down in the water and help keep it sweet and clean. Bunches of some can be simply dropped in the pool. But all will grow better and save you the trouble of replacing them if their roots are in soil, in pots set on the pool floor. Although they’re mostly perennials, we prefer to start each season with a fresh supply. They’re available in variety at pet stores or by mail from lily specialists. Since they’re neither true miniature plants nor as decorative as they are functional, separate descriptions are not included here.
Other Aquatic Plants
With the water lilies and other aquatics, these are the only plants that can grow with their roots standing in water—some in deeper water than others. With few exceptions, this does not mean sour, stagnant water. Even in bogs there is some circulation. Adding chunks of charcoal that absorbs impurities will often help keep the water fresh and healthful.
Some of these plants are hardy, some are not; some need their roots in soil; some can do without it; some are better growing in the water of the pool; some in the boggy soil beside it.
Earlier in this chapter I said I had never built a pool. I meant that I had never done it personally and worried about water levels and the general engineering. But we have had several pools, little more than puddles, which my husband constructed. Small though they were, they gave us the chance to enjoy water lilies and bog plants. It was then that I began to realize the delights and magnitude of this sort of gardening. Someday I hope to have a pond of some size—a spot for lilies, frogs, and goldfish and all of those things G. L. Thomas, Jr., writes about so charmingly in his book, Garden Pools, Water-Lilies and Goldfish. I also get great pleasure out of the catalogues several suppliers send out. They are most delightful reading. Read that book, and the catalogues, and I know you will be converted to water-gardening.