Marsh Marigold

[Tricia]

Yes Alison, the primrose willow has started out in leaf again and there are now lots of lily pads giving cover for the fish, so I'm still yanking out fistfuls of watercress every few days.

[dampflippers]

I daren't pull any watercress out at the moment because of newt eggs and newt babies. I already have quite a few tadpole nurseries into which I have added a few newt babies.
I'll just have to wait till a bit later when they have all hatched, and swish it in a bucket of water to collect wildlife before the compost heap.

My marsh marigold is nearly over now.
Watch out with the primrose willow- mine suddenly went rampant and put out shoots across the pond in all directions. I had to be quite severe with it.

[alison]

It does send out these shoots across the pond when it is ready to get into flower motion. It sends out lots of long runners horizontally and then up out of those come the vertical shoots which then have the flowers. I love it when it does this as I can see how much of it will be flowering. Obviously with a small pond no one wants it to cover all their water surface. It is just like the watercress really the speed it grows. So you have to keep this is mind when you put it in. I have just been and pulled out some more of the watercress as the rain that we have had over the last two days has really flattened it so that it won't recover completely.
Damp you are so lucky to have the newts, our watercress isn't so obliging.