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David Epstein: I am here with Tom Frost of MetroWest Water Gardens and you told me of all of your ponds that you have here, this is your favorite, so I want you to take me on a little tour.
Tom Frost: Sure.
David Epstein: You got an amazing selection of plant around here; let us start with this because this I see in the wild.
Tom Frost: Sure, this is a very common plant certainly in New England, a common clot cocktail, I like them because breaks up the back of the rock here quite a bit..
David Epstein: It makes it look very natural as well.
Tom Frost: Yes.
David Epstein: Now that is not native.
Tom Frost: That is not native and that will not survive the winter. That is a Papyrus; it is a Giant Papyrus. This thing actually can get up to about six feet high. It cannot be wintered over inside it is considered tropical plants, they are actually even pull out of pots and planted right in the rock of the pond and in the fall if you want to save the plants, what we will do is we will extract them from the pond and put them in a pot and treat them as a house plant for the winter.
David Epstein: This is a Floating Hyacinth.
Tom Frost: Not only does it propagate it actually and up shading a lot of the water below it. You will see it does put out a very beautiful flower, but if you noticed it is a very interesting root structure.
Not only does it float to the water. It is serving as a food source to the plants because it is attracting algae and nutrients in the roots and the fish will actually spend time nibbling on the roots underneath the water.
David Epstein: Any scent to that?
Tom Frost: Unfortunately no scent it is just all beauty.
David Epstein: It is beautiful, how long will that flower?
Tom Frost: A couple of days at the most.
David Epstein: Another flowering plant those are pond lilies?
Tom Frost: This are Hardy Water Lilies so they will come back every year. They are acquainted right in the gravel in the bottom of the pond, so they will propagate and they are going to flower from now until about the end of August until mid September.
David Epstein: And it will just continually to flower?
Tom Frost: It will continue to flower.
David Epstein: Now, over there near the rocks, you got something that is really dark.
Tom Frost: And, that is a Taro Plant; it is a tropical plant. The leaves on that can actually get up to a foot and half wide.
David Epstein: And then you have surrounded the pond with some really nice ornamentals; so this is a Weeping Norway Spruce.
Tom Frost: That is about the mature height that it is going to grow. Most of its growth is going to start coming down.
David Epstein: Would you prune this at all?
Tom Frost: Yes I want to look kind of contained so I like to kind of trim them just as it start to touch the ground.
David Epstein: So, trim them up off the ground a little bit.
Tom Frost: Exactly.
David Epstein: I like this because I bet this gives good winter color.
Tom Frost: This is a Heritage Birch, what is nice about it, it is very resistant to the Birch borer. It stays nice and compact, very easy to prune, this next plant which does not look all that great with leaves on it, it is fantastic in the snow. It is a Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick all curly leaves, curly sticks.
David Epstein: Well thanks Tom, I appreciate your time.
Tom Frost: Thanks David.
David Epstein: Alright, so we hope that you have enjoyed our tour of Tom Frost’s pond here today, its certainly a beautiful place. Please come back often to GrowingWisdom.com.
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