Plant Care and Cultivation
| Although aquatic plants are generally care-free, but they do require attention from time to time. They also have to be planted correctly, not just for the benefit of the plant, but also that of the ecosystem of the pond. An ill-considered compost can not only cause problems for the plant that is being grown in it, but also for the pond itself, altering its chemistry and causing difficult, often algae-rich water conditions.
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 Algae-rich pond conditions can result from the use of an ill-conceived compost.
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 Feed with great care to ensure that nutrients do not escape and cause an algal bloom.
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Compost must be selected very carefully, and the containers in which the plants are grown should be appropriate. Feeding is also a process that requires care, for while over-fertilizing in an aquatic environment is unlikely to cause any problem for the plants, it will certainly produce a nightmare for the water gardener, the dissolved nutrients encouraging an abundant algal bloom.
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| Aquatic plants are also generally more vigorous than their land-bound counterparts, and if grown without restriction will soon swamp one another. Most of the popular aquatics can give as good as they get when fighting for space, but plant entanglement is unsightly and management becomes very difficult. Although it is generally recommended that aquatic plants are grown in proper aquatic planting baskets, there are occasions when this is not practical, especially in natural earth ponds. Under such circumstances soil sculpting is often employed to control their spread. Routine maintenance of aquatics is much like that of other garden plants. The majority are perennial and of an herbaceous nature, and so must be divided periodically in order to maintain their vigour.
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 Aquatic plants can be more vigorous than their land-bound cousins.
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 If waterlilies are not divided regularly, the leaves climb out of the water.
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In the case of hardy waterlilies, if regular division is not undertaken, flowering rapidly diminishes and an excess of foliage is produced, which tries to climb out of the water. With all aquatic plants spring and early summer are the times to undertake the task, unlike bog garden plants when the dormant winter period and early spring, just as growth commences, proves for the most part to be most satisfactory.
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| The tidying up of faded foliage and blossoms is an on-going task, as is it would be in the mixed border. Those plants that are growing in deep water will take care of themselves, but marginal aquatics benefit from regularly dead-heading, and certainly tidying up and cutting back during the autumn.
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When undertaking such work in the shallows, take care not to reduce hollow-stemmed reeds and rushes to below the expected maximum winter water level. If the stems fill with water, areas of the plant will tend to die out and rot away, leaving uneven growth next season. In some cases the plants rot away completely.
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 When tidying up marginal aquatics, do not cut the stems below water level.
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