- Approximate height: 50cm (20 inches)
- Recommended water depth over crown of plant: 8 - 15cm (3 - 6 inches)
- Flowering time: July to September
- Flower colour: Blue
- Supplied either as a bare-root plant or in a solid 1 litre pot - for best results we recommend potting on using a 2 - 4 litre pot
This American species forms attractive clumps of lush shiny green leaves, topped with blue flower spikes in late summer to autumn. Compared to most pond plants, it is late up and late to flower and thus useful for extending the growing season of the pond, making a nice show when other things have faded. It has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (AGM) and, like all the pickerel plants, the flowers are very attractive to bees.
Because this is a later plant, it isn't usually available in pots early in the year - it over-winters as a rhizome but puts down a new set of roots each year. Early in the year it can be bought bare root. If you have purchased a bare-root specimen, plant it in the place of your choice with the rhizome almost, but not quite, covered in soil. If planting in a pot, place the cut end of the rhizome against the edge of your pot (so that the 'growing' end has the most space).
If designing a planting scheme, we recommend approximately 1 Pontederia cordata plant per square foot of ground or per linear foot of pond edge. Read more here on how to pot and care for your plant.