The Black Princess has opened up in my pond. I look forward to seeing her every year.

Would love to see what you all have flowering -

Japanese Iris Strut and Flourish is planted in one of my bog shelves - she has been putting on quite a show.

The water hyacinths are early this year for me. Typically I have flowers in August.

I just received two new lilies from TWL, one of which is Chromatella, along with some parrot grass. They went into the pond ASAP in pea gravel with the plant spikes. I so hope they will bloom this year. Our water is a lot cooler and thus far sunshine is rather sporadic.

hmmmm..... 24 views and 1 posting other than myself.

I cannot believe I am the only one that has anything blooming in my pond - do any of you have anything blooming in your ponds? Please share.

I'm in the same boat as Oberon26...cool and very little sun. I'm assumming an algae bloom isn't what you wanted to see.

Carol

You are funny - how about some fish pictures? I thought California was supposed to be sunny.

Beautiful pictures. I didn't see this earlier or I would have posted some pics. Here are some pics from one of my ponds taken in the last week.

Wood's Blue Goddess


Wood's BG in the front and Foxfire behind it.


some NOID tropicals


the pond.


Lilies bloom all year here but they pick up the pace once the rains start in the summer. I need to get in the pond and fertilize them because the rains have started and I'm ready for a mass of blooms.

Jonna

they are gorgeous. I wish could grow the tropicals, but my fish find them rather tasty.

I didn't want to have large fish because I would hate to lose them to predators. We are close to the Gulf of Mexico and there are a lot of fishing birds in the area. So, I stuck to small tropical fish. In this pond I have Mollies and Guppies and Angel Fish and none of them have bothered the lilies. I did have one year when the leaf cutter ants found the pond and walked out across the lily pads and then ate their way back. They did a lot of damage in one night but I put out bait and killed the nest the next day, it's amazing how much they can carry off in one night.

I had some long finned koi and Wakin in a pond in Calif and luckily they never started eating the lilies or even digging in the pots. I think maybe that was just luck.

It's funny that your fish only like the tropicals. I wonder why.

Carolyn, Inland Ca. is sunny. Palm Springs has been around 105, but closer to the coast we do May gray and June gloom. We haven'tmade it to 80 yet. I gave up on fish last year due to the varmints fishing in my little pond. Now I just use mosquito dunks to keep the mossies away.

No lilies for me. The lily pads are just reaching the surface. I keep hoping. We had a series of days (all 3 or 4) where it was almost 80. Wonderful!! I was hoping that would sort of jump start them. Maybe I should put in more of those plant spikes.

Mary

what is your water temp?

Mary, don't feel behind. I'm in So. Cal. and we just finally hit 80 today! Those Alaskan storms just haven't quit this year. Unfortunately, the rain rarely makes it this far south, but it has kept us below normal temps.

We got the back side of Debbie yesterday and the rain was bucketing down for hours. I had to put our door shield up and then some sandbags behind it as the street flooded. I still got a little water in the hall but not as bad as in past years. During all this, I had the pumps on trying to keep the outside pond from overflowing - those Mollies love to go on a swim about in the neighboring flower beds but some of them are too dumb to go back to the pond when the water goes down. I forgot the pumps at one point and when I ran out to turn them off there was only about a foot and half of water in the pond and the pool was really low. So, today, I got to refill them both. Very strange as we may get another dump of rain this afternoon but I'm out there pumping water IN. I have a new lotus plant at one end of the pond and I'm hoping that the low water didn't derail its growth.

The pond in the hall was touch and go for a bit, I need to get a longer hose for the pump. I could only pump it to the nearest drain and that was already full from the roof drains. It got within an inch of overflowing into the hall and the house... I was a bit nervous about that. The pond on the roof I had pumped down before all of this started but when I went up there later it was right at the lip. That means we got around 5 - 6 inches of rain in about 3 hours!

All's well though and the fish are happy. I hope those of you in Florida don't have many problems.

Wow Jonna. Sounds like you really had your hands full. I am of the impression that Debbie is supposed to sit and spin for a bit. Is that correct?

I think she is doing that in Florida now. She was never over us here in the Yucatan but the rain seems to get sucked up behind her and that is what hit us. I'm obviously not very clear on the science, it just seems like a hurricane or tropical storm sucks all the weather into it, from a long ways away. We were under that pattern. Debby formed off the coast of the Yucatan and moved north towards the US.

Jonna

that happens here as well. The moisture from the Atlantic gets drawn in and we get the tail end of these Tropical Storms and Hurricanes. Last September we were all flooded here with Hurricane Lee.

I think of these storms as like a vacuum, all the moisture in the sky heads for them. Before a hurricane hits, when it is a day or so offshore, is some of the most beautiful weather you'll ever see. All the humidity and the clouds are sucked away.

It was sunny this morning but I can see clouds surrounding us. I've got to take this hall pond apart and clean everything while I wait for the electrician. Not looking forward to it, I'm beat.

Hi Carolyn, Not much blooming in my water gardens yet, but I will be back and post a few pictures.