aquatic plants for Phoenix Ponds

​​THE FOLLOWING ARE AQUATIC PLANTS THAT WE HAVE FOUND TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN OUR SONORAN DESERT ENVIRONMENT AND HIGH PH WATER CONDITIONS (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER):
Aquatic Butterfly Bush
Bushy to 2’ tall. Spreads aggressively to 4’ wide. Once mature, tends to develop rot in the middle where water circulation is cut off to the root zone. Moderately easy to remove the rot zone and once water flow is established thru the plant it tends to recover quickly. Make sure all the rot is removed or it will continue to rot.
Great plant for attracting queen and monarch butterflies!
​Fast and easy to grow.  Will grow in pond edge or even faster in moving water.
Aquatic Four-Leaf Clover
Highly aggressive grower! Great for concrete koi ponds as the koi love to graze on it. Also great cover plant for frogs in a concrete pond.
Aquatic Mint
Fun for ponds owned by edible plant lovers. Attracts bees. ​Looks messy and dead in the winter months.
Aquatic Morning Glory
Vine. Needs moving water to survive. Thanks to the Cotton Growers Sssociation, this plant is on the Arizona restricted plant list. Fish and Quail feast on it.
Black Iris
Show stopping color in the winter time.
Very demure vertical plant. Slow grower. More unique, and therefore more expensive, than the Blue Flag Iris.
Blue Flag Iris
Great choice for our ponds!  Grows well once established.  Propagates by rhizome division.
Winter color Jan.-March. Seems to prefer moving water.
Bog Lily
Grows from tubers that look like onions which divide and spread the same as onions. Vertical form to 15” height. Great flowers similar to the Daylily.
Canna (spp.); Red, orange or yellow
Tall element with great summer blooms.
Great for pond margins! Good tall and thick screen plants. Tall, thick, element for background planting. Grows in 6” margin shelves and in well watered and improved garden soil.
​We can use the cannas from any nursery.  Just clean the mulch off the stolons and plant into the gravel margins.
Dwarf Cattail
Great little plant for water gardens! Grows in grassy runners to 2’ high. Seed heads are sized like Vienna sausages. ​Easy to control once established, unlike it’s big brother the full sized cattail.
Dwarf Papyrus
Somewhat difficult to grow, should only be planted in very shallow margins.  Plant in 1” of water max. Grassy, clumping plant.
Up to 2’ tall.
The “bloom heads” are potential plants. Cut them off, stick them into the shallow margins and over half of them will grow into new plants.
Fiber Optic Grass
Fabulous grassy accent in streams. Propagates by division. Seeds seem to be non-viable.
Fireworks Sedge
Grows in clumps. Stays fairly contained. Nice grassy accent plant.
Giant Egyptian Papyrus
Awesome accent plant growing up to 6’ tall. Propagates by root division.
Golden Columbine
Winter annual that will not survive the Phoenix summer. Plant in shallow margins of moving water.
Hardy Water Lily: White, Yellow, Pink, and Red
Slow in newer ponds. Fast in mature ponds
10”–18” planting depth, with 12” being optimal. Provides shade for fish and is a great cover plant for shading pond zones.
Hardy Water Lily: Peach
Same as above, but not as easily acquired.
Hardy Water Lily: Wanvisa
12” planting depth recommended.
This one is much more difficult to grow here than other hardies. Unique coloration to the flowers and leaves. May be difficult to acquire, and is more expensive.
Horsetail Rush
Aggressive root systems. We avoid this plant in our Aquascape ponds. Super cool form and texture. It will grow in improved garden soil which is awesome looking outside the pond liner.
Lady's Thumb
Native-ish plant we don’t see much. ​Considered aggressive and even restricted in some states.
Lizard Tail
Should be easy to grow, but we have had issues. Could be aggressive when established.
Monkey Flower
Native to the Grand Canyon area. Propagates by seed. Amazing spring color! Easy to control and remove.  Shallow rooter. Can look a bit trashy once the blooms are spent -- deadhead to keep looking fresh.
Night-blooming Water Lily
12” – 24” planting depth.
Pond should be mature and fertile for success. Night bloomer and fragrant.
These often do not survive the winters here and you must re-plant a new one in the spring.
Orange Tropical Milkweed
Great color! A tropical plant that seems to do well in desert ponds. Will grow in streams or ponds and seems willing to naturalize into the adjacent landscape as well. 
Monarch caterpillars will chew it up in the late summer and fall.  Please allow it, the plant will come back and Monarch butterflies are an important, and endangered species!
Parrot Feather
On Arizona’s restricted plants list, but not sure why. It is very easy to control and remove. Needs to be pinched back or it gets leggy and ugly. ​Beautiful fern form when properly maintained.
Pennywort
Beware: Will grow aggressively in any water garden environment. Use this plant when attempting to keep a water garden in a concrete feature.
Pickerel Rush
Needs a mature pond to be happy. Grows well once established. ​Showy pink, white, and purple flowers.
Potato Vine
Grows well in moving water. Propagates from cuttings. Great for the colorful red foliage. ​Will not grow an edible tuber in the water.
Rain Lily
Plant in shallow margins of moving water. Pretty flowers. Can grow in shallow margins, or improved garden soil, so a great way to blend the stream edge into the landscaping.
Sagittaria
Easy to grow and maintain. Grows to 2’ tall. Pretty white flower sprays off 3’ stalks. Also know as “duck potato”, due to an edible tuber. 
Taro
Green grows from runners that emanate from tubers that are used to make poi in Thai food. It is a vigorous grower once established and can be planted in new ponds.
 
Black is a clumper with no food value, harder to grow as it needs shade here, and more expensive.
Thalia
Been difficult to grow thus far. But our newer cultivars are showing promise. Stay tuned.
Tropical Water Lily
12”-24” planting depth
Recommend a fertile pond or planting medium. Not very winter-hardy.
Vallisneria
Underwater cover plant.
Great for providing fish cover from predators in a shallow pond. ​Grows fast but easy to remove and maintain. Fish and turtles dig it.
Water Hyssop
Fast growing shoreline cover. Great for stabilizing gravel shorelines. Will create a shoreline “lawn” of sorts. Dove love to eat it. ​Will spread easily to nearby vegetable gardens and can become problematic if the garden is not well tended.
Water Lettuce
Needs a mature pond to be happy. Floating plant, so not the best for ponds with skimmer systems.
Has an aggressive propagation habit and can cover a large pond entirely in a single season.
Watercresss
Edible, low growing, fast spreading, plant that needs moving water to be happy. Bright green color. Great plants for breaking up and moving the flow of wide stream beds.
Whitewoolly Twintip
But it has blue/purple flowers? Yep. This is an Arizona riparian plant. This wildflower grows in wet sand or between rocks in and along streams and rivers in the desert and lower mountain foothills. Terrific in streams.
Yellow Flag Iris
On Arizona’s restricted plant list. Very aggressive rooter! Difficult to remove once established!
Yerba Manza
Native plant that grows aggressively in our water gardens however it is easy to control if it gets monthly attention. Native Indians used this plant to create a tincture to “purify” or “cleanse” the body. ​Left unattended to, this plant will swallow a small pond in a few hot months!