I was under the impression that Lily Pond had gone quiet. The single clump of surviving spawn seemed to have disintegrated with no sign of life and the only activity each day was due to bees, back swimmers and pond skaters. I’ve nothing against these creatures, but they’re not amphibians, and I’m not called frogwoman for nothing!
So, without much happening, I decided to introduce a decent-sized lily. The one I bought last year hadn’t disappointed in terms of blooms, but the lily pads were underwhelming. I’d had in mind something a frog could sit on while waiting to be kissed. And, despite taking care of it over winter, it was looking small, less than spectacular, and not worthy of having a pond named for it.
Enter the new lily. This one is called Nymphaea ‘Paul Hariot’ and, with larger, red-speckled pads, it looks just the thing. Here it is, suspended on canes as it’s slowly lowered each day, giving the pads and buds a chance to grow upwards.
Of course, I couldn’t resist buying a few more things while I was at the garden centre. Smith’s Garden Centre in Baginton near Coventry Airport is a good-sized family-run business with plenty of choice and helpful staff. They have an interesting aquatic section, notable for a good selection of healthy plants at reasonable prices. And decent cake. Anyway, avoiding cake on this occasion, I bought a medium-sized stripy-stemmed Dutch bulrush (Equisetum hyemale) for the centre of the shallower end, and an Iris louisiana ‘Ann Chowning’, for the pond margin.
Back at home, and with the new lily installed, I embarked on a mini overhaul, repotting, and redesigning areas of the pond, making better use of pebbles to disguise parts of the pond liner and settling in the other new plants. The odd thing is that, once the pond was all looking great, it seemed to come to life.
The first thing I noticed were lots of chunky-looking tadpoles in and around the new planting (I haven’t included video as I’ve uploaded many that look similar already). Then I noticed quite a few snails on the bigger pebbles and two in particular caught my eye. Looking closely, I couldn’t decide if they were just getting in each other’s way or actually mating. You can decide when you watch the video.
Next, while trying to get a shot of a dragonfly in focus, on a frond waving in the breeze, and another of what looks like a discarded dragonfly carapace, I spotted a beady eye under a mossy rock. A resident frog, shaded from the hot afternoon sun, keeping a close watch on me.
Once I’d spotted him, I found it quite easy to spot him again over the next couple of days, usually cooling his legs with his head just above water, or tucked in a cool, dark crevice.
Final garden notes for this blog… self-seeded aquilegia buds and bluebells. And fronds of fern unfurling, looking like alien listening devices, under the hydrangeas. And a sprouting Cotinus (Smoke Bush), healthy despite a clumsy job with the saw.
FROG BLOG 