When I finally do get water plants for the pond, should I soak them in Potassium Permanganate, just as if I was going to put them into an aquarium? Most water plants at the local hardware store come in pots. Will I be taking them out of their "soil" anyway, and repotting? If so, I could give them a dunk then. If I order some through the mail from a water plant specialty store, would I still want to treat them? Would you recommend that I order them through the mail?

Also, I could get some hornwort from the nearby lake - boaters there consider it a nuisance. Would PP get rid of the bad stuff on it well enough? I imagine I'd get lots of hitchhikers on a plant that's from a real lake.

I actually came home from Lowes today with a plant called "fiber optic plant" which is now in a "bog" on the window sill. I can't resist.... I'm so bad!

Yeah, really BAD! Welcome to the club... :

Yes, you can soak the plants in PP - just make sure the dosage isn't too strong. I made that mistake ones,wanting to let the plants sit in a bucket overnight in PP. The next morning literally nothing was left...

Wherever you get your plants from, always give them a dunk with PP. No matter how perfect the store seems to be, better safe than sorry. Mailordering in general from a plant supply store is okay, just be aware that you are not really seing what you are buying, and you might get a smaller plant than you expected. For me, I want to see what I get, and I try to find plants in local stores first before I dive into mail ordering.

Are you going to put the plants into aquatic soil, or ordinary top soil?

Here is my thought on planting, and please share any advice on this, no matter how trivial. You can safely assume I know nothing about water plants - even though I've been digging in the dirt since I was 2 years old, this is untried territory.

I was thinking of getting the plastic mesh baskets, so that the water circulates through and provides whatever nutrients may be available there. I'll also probably try making some floating islands with mesh basket, or porous fabric (something that won't rot.)

I also bought a planting product called "Aquatic Plant Soil" by a Schultz. I was thinking I would use that, maybe add a bit of koi clay, and a fertilizer tab. Plant the plant, and place rocks on top to prevent nosy fish from digging up the plant.

What do you think? I am very open to all suggestions, and I'll probably try each one at least once!

The big hardware stores around here sell some water plants, and the garden centers carry some as well. But there's this place, about 1 1/2 hours from here, that advertises that they are really, really big into water plants, ponds, etc... think I should make the trip? OK, don't twist my arm! On my way!

See, I knew that goldfish in a car would come handy one day!

Those plastic mesh baskets are great - I have some of those too, mostly for any lilies. I put some pond netting in it as well, since the soil otherwise is able to fall out of the basket due to the holes being to big to hold soil. At least the ones around here have holes that are too big.

Other than that, your plan sounds good. Except for lilies, I would however forget about fertilizer. There are so many nutrients from the fish in the water, that I never needed any fertilizer. I only used those tabs for the blooming varieties. Rocks on top =

You can also wander a bit out of the aqutic plant section and look for plants that are water loving, not directly water plants. I use spider plants, umbrella plants (also known as papyrus), peace lilies and taro plants. They might need to go inside during a winter if the temps drop below 40-50 or so, but other than that they will do fine. Especially the umbrella plant grows like weeds in my ponds. Years ago I bought one plant, and got 6 out of them after I was done dividing and dividing and dividing. They all died during the winter this year, but I found some hardier ones at Lowe's, and planted those.

You might also want to look into some floating plants like water lettuce and especially water hyacinths - those are lovely plants, and the latter one not only develops a massive root system that acts as additional natural filtration, it also grows some lovely violet flowers and multiplies easily. Duckweed is also a lovely, little floating plant, however some fish might eat it (mine did), and that was the end of those.

Anyway, nothing more fun than experimenting around...

What is a safe solution of PP to soak pond plants in?