Pickerel Weed

Nice to see close up when paddling through the marsh.

Nice Picture thank you for sharing

I've been considering this plant for a boggy area of the yard. Is it invasive or overly aggressive, do you know?

I've never seen Pickerel Weed growing anywhere other than constantly wet areas. Around here it common in our tidal fresh water marsh where we see other plants typically found only in marshy areas. I wouldn't think of it as invasive at all. Good luck! Are you going to transplant it or start from seed?

Actually, I was going to see if I could find it at a nursery! There are some nurseries that deal in native plants that I had in mind. I was going to check their websites.

Yes, you are right - I suppose it would only grow in the areas where it is very wet. The spot I am thinking of is a quite large area, and I just didn't want it to take over the WHOLE spot. I'm sure it won't spread out of that area, as the conditions won't be favorable for it. I just didn't want it to take over some of the other plantings there.

It's a very pretty and an unusual plant. Not the type of thing you see too often in a garden. Thanks for the info!

Dee

P.S. How do you think this would do in a containerized water garden? I'm thinking of turning a big old galvanized tub into a patio water garden this year. Maybe that would work in there...?

I have mine in an old wash basin, buried in a rain garden area. It does fine in the container, and tolerates a fair amount of variation in moisture, from standing water to dry. I have to add water in the summer when there's no rain. We couldn't do that last year, so the tops dies, but it came back fine from the roots this spring. You might ask in the water gardens forum, some of those folks have bog gardens, in containers and natural.

Down here, it definitely will spread to fill the available area. It's not much a worry, since it's native and works well in the aquatic ecosystem. I'm guessing it gets cold enough up there to limit its rate of expansion.

This message was edited Mar 26, 2010 8:24 AM

Thank you for that information. It was really helpful. I'll have to look into this. My friend would like it for the (very) wet area of her garden. I'm not so lucky, so mine would have to live on the patio in a container. Thank you!

A friend gave me a white blooming pickerel weed last summer, and I kept it in a big water garden pot (it was planted in a gallon pot, which I just placed down into the water). I didn't fish it out of the pot this fall, nor did I drain the water from the pot, and this spring it's sprouting back up again, happy as a clam. :-)

I planted some 2 years ago, when a friend and I got "into" the idea of water gardens.
We bought Lotus seeds. I bought Pickeral Rush and Siberian Iris to put in a wet area of our yard.
First year was great, came back the next year and was fun to watch. The second Winter it died. The iris came back, but no Pickeral. Perhaps if I had put it in its own bucket and then brought it in........
We had such a Baaaad Winter.....
Hope you have good luck and keep sending in pictures, please. ;o)