A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Water Gardens question about overwintering pond plants

how do you do this? i keep my hardy water lilies in the bottom of my pond....but for an experiment, i brought a water fern and some water lettuce in to see if i could keep them till next year. i put them in my upstairs bathroom in a indoor fountain that probably holds 5 gallons.....the water started stinking after only 2 days and now it looks funny in it. sooooo, why and do i just ditch them?????

Are the plants getting lots of light in the fountains? You will need to mimic natural lighting for the plants inside and that probably entails a fluorescent light near the plants. And, also, what is in the fountain water, any chlorine or bleach? Plants will naturally decomp older leaves and pieces, so a filter on the pump might be a good thing. A charcoal filter will keep the smell out. I brought in my anarchis and hornwort and keep them in a fish tank that I turn on from 6:50 in the morning to around midnight when I go to bed. The hornwort slowly fell apart and died but the anarchis looks good still. It's probably been about 2 or 3 months inside.

I have tried overwintering and have had luck with water lettuce and salvinia. They take more than a window for light. I had to put a heat grow light down on them and keep it on almost 24 hours a day for them not to rot.

My lilies and all hardies get left in the pond.