Wintering pond plants

[honuskye]

What exactly do I do for the pond plants during winter. I'm in a zone 5 near southern michigan. The plants that I have are hyacinth, hardy water lilies, water cress, kang kong, java moss, and java fern. Can I leave the hyacinth and lilies in there without doing anything and will they come back in spring? Oh and I'm going to keep the goldfish and minnows in there they won't die will they its about 300 gallons and 2 feet deep. Any nooby tips in general for wintering a pond?

 

[Chad55]

I would take out all your tropical plants depending on where you are located and the temp gets down to. I am pretty sure hyacinths are tropical but I am in Michigan and I am going to leave mine in there just to see what happens. They will most likely die though. You can try and leave all of them in there but most of them will probably die. The hardy lilies on the other hand winterover. I am getting some here in a couple days (I know not a good time to plant) but I will be leaving mine out. You can clip off all the leaves if you want but I won't. Don't take all my advice to heart though. This will be my first winter also.

Chad

 

[Dr Joe]

The water hyacinth will die at first frost. Anything you think is going to die should be taken out before otherwise they just rot and pollute the water making sure other things die.

Dr Joe

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[cropsebride]

The water hyacinth will die and sink to the bottom and make a right mess. you should just be able to leave the lillies in there, and they will come back. If the pond dosnt freeze soldid the fish should be ok.

 

[honuskye]

Can hornwort survive the winter or will it die and pollute it?

 

[johnnylaw1984]

The water hyacinth will die and sink to the bottom and make a right mess. you should just be able to leave the lillies in there, and they will come back. If the pond dosnt freeze soldid the fish should be ok.

i agree. i used to live near chicago, and my hyacinth died and made a huge mess in the spring