In Florida things that grow in water are always a plus. I discovered by trial and error that Lasia spinosa (sometimes called the Unicorn Plant) will be a die back perennial here. So I immediately thinned the huge plant I have in my greenhouse pond and threw some into 2 small ponds outside. One is a little inground pond and one is this container garden. Lasia spinosa is a vicious plant. It has nasty spines on the stems and leaves. In Southeast Asia where it grows wild it forms matts in the water and if you were to fall into it, you'd be shredded. I had an extra Peace Lily so I threw it into the pond barefoot too. This has been boing strong for 4 years. If to gets too cold the peace lily dies back some too but always comes back.

Interesting! You mentioned a greenhouse pond. Do you by any chance own a Growing Dome? I have one with a pond in it. Right now it has mosquito fish and no plants. I've been looking for some plants that can take the lower winter temps. The summer plants always die during the winter.

No Karen, I don't cover anything. When we first moved out here I wanted a really big pond, but the water table is so high and there are already areas of seasonal bog out here in the Hammock. We back up to a State nature preserve and have a creek running through our property that also goes through the preserve, and also abut a seasonal wetland. There was no where to dig a big pond and site it in enough sun so I buried some large container ponds in various places and grow stuff in there. They also serve as water sources for wildlife (we have all kinds, deer, opossum, raccoons, coyotes, otters, bald eagles, osprey and other hawks, owls, you name it I have seen it except for bears and Florida panthers). I opened my front door once to take my dog for a walk and a little peregrine falcon flew in. It was hell getting it to fly back out. I have some containers on my pool deck for water lilies and stuff and grow the huge Egyptian papyrus in a bog garden made from a little kidney shaped preform out in the yard so it doesn;t escape...I initially planted it in the ground and it spread like wildfire and I had to contain it. The greenhouse pond is an actual pond I installed in the greenhouse. I will take a photo of it. It has a Bauhinia tree and a big Watermelon Palm planted by it. This is a barred owl I got a shot of one day sitting on one of the water lily containers out by my pool. He stayed for a long time.

This is my greenhouse pond and some of the tropical plants around it...the mother of the Lasia spinosa, the trunk of my big watermelon palm (I have another smaller one), an anthurium growing as a partial epiphyte/partial lithophyte, mini bromeliads and orchids, ferns that grow in the pond, dracaena sanderiana that are also growing aquatically....

Very beautiful, Gina!

Thank you! One of my winter projects is to pressure wash the green off my greenhouse walls

That does sound like a big project! How cold does your pond water get in winter? I'd love to have some plants that could go down to 55 degrees at the lowest. So far everything I've tried has died out.

We have a little home pressure washer. I have used it in there before, the hardest part is avoiding the plants LOL. In winter I keep the greenhouse no colder than 50F at night. If its going to be below 50, I set the heater to 55. It has automatic regulation by an air sensing thermostat that turns it on and off. Its 200,000BTU propane with a strong blower and I have HAF fans in the attic that circulate heat. Everything is getting old though, I had to replace the heater after the old one caught fire from rusting out on a 20F night. That is how I lost some of my collection. The 36 foot vent across the back used to be automatic, but the motor failed a couple years ago. It was over $1000 to replace so I never did. At some point the automatic thermostat will go by the way and I will have to either have that control system replaced, or have an electrician wire the thermostat to a manual one. The stream is shallow and ends in a still pool that is about 3 feet deep. The pond is shallow, maybe a foot deep. That big Lasia has put roots through the pond liner so I have to keep a hose on permanent drip to keep the pond full. The extra water does help keep humidity up in winter though.