- Approximate leaf spread: 60cm (24 inches)
- Recommended water depth over crown of the plant: 20 - 90cm (8 - 36 inches)
- Flowering time: All months of the year, except in very hot or frosty weather.
- Flower colour: White
- Supplied either as one loose flowering size bulb, or potted in a 1 litre pot
Water Hawthorn is one of the best deep-water aquatics, second only to the waterlilies. It has long strap-like green floating leaves that are often attractively speckled with maroon when young. The white flowers stand just out of the water and have an incredibly powerful vanilla scent. Unlike most aquatic plants this is at its best from autumn through until next spring - it will die back in hot weather or icy weather, but in a mild year will flower right through the winter. This makes it a useful plant for providing all-year interest when other species are dormant. Also, unlike most waterlilies, it grows well in shade, although you will get more flowers in sun or partial shade than full shade. Its only possible drawback is that great pond snails (freshwater whelks) will sometimes chew its leaves, so if you have large numbers of these you may want to avoid it.
This plant can be bought in pots at any time of the year, but if we are out of potted plants due to high demand, it can also be bought as a bare-root bulb, since the bulbs travel well. A bare-root bulb should ideally be potted up in a 1 litre pot.
As these are fairly young plants, we would recommend having no more than 12 - 18 inches of water over the crown at first - once the plant has plenty of larger leaves it can be put deeper. (House bricks or pots filled with gravel can be used to raise plants to the required level).
If designing a planting scheme, we recommend approximately 1 Aponogeton distachyos plant per four square feet of water surface. Read more here on how to pot and care for your plant.