Floating plants help keep your natural pond cool, clean, and safe for fish. Here are the top species of floating pond plants we recommend.
Water Hyacinth
If you’re searching for a colorful addition to your natural pond, water hyacinth is a great option. The water hyacinth gets its name due to its pastel purple flowers, which resemble those from terrestrial hyacinths. These flowers bloom through the summer months and thrive in high temperatures. You can also keep these flowers in vases indoors to brighten your home.
This plant is easy to grow and multiplies quickly, so be ready to thin your population regularly in order to prevent the plant’s rosettes from choking out other pond plants. Once winter begins, you can bring a few rosettes inside and bring them back out next year.
Water Lettuce
Pistia stratiotes, better known as water lettuce, is one of the most popular floating pond plant options thanks to its decorative, lettuce-like growth. Not only is water lettuce one of the easiest plants to care for, but its long roots also provide refuge for fish and frogs. This plant also grows quickly and helps filter nitrates from the water.
Floating Watermoss
Also known as floating fern or water butterfly wings, floating watermoss is an aquatic fern. This plant gets its name for being superficially similar to moss. It grows densely and quickly. This spongy-leafed floating plant can often create the illusion of a green mat thick enough to walk on.
Floating watermoss provides ample shelter to keep your pond and its inhabitants cool in the summer. Another bonus: if you have an indoor aquarium, you can keep this plant alive there year-round. When your plant dies off outside in the winter, you can use your indoor supply to repopulate your natural pond next summer!
