Aquatic Plants

Enhance Your Water Feature with Aquatic Plants: The Benefits and Uses

Utah Water Gardens offers the largest variety of aquatic plants in Utah, including winter hardy water lilies, perennials, and tropicals. Our selection includes Utah natives and hard-to-find plants. All aquatic plants fall into five categories: bog, marginal, shallow water, submerged, and free-floating, based on where they grow naturally in a pond, lake, or stream habitat.

Aquatic plants provide many benefits to your pond or water feature and are essential for a healthy aquatic ecosystem. They act as natural filters to clean and clarify your water, and submerged plants like hornwort and anacharis oxygenate and clean the water. Aquatic plants also protect your fish by providing coverage and shade during the summer months, and provide hiding places from predators like migratory birds and raccoons.

In addition to their practical uses, aquatic plants can benefit other creatures that visit your pond or water feature. Flowering aquatic plants like cardinal flower and blue pickerel rush attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and dragonflies, and water lilies benefit honeybees by providing a safe place to drink water.

Many of our aquatic plants are considered medicinal and edible, including aquatic mint, water celery, and taro. They can be harvested and safely enjoyed, making your water feature an extension of your garden. In addition to being consumed raw, dried, or cooked, many aquatic plants offer unique flavors and nutrition.

Aquatic plants also help soften the hard edges of ponds and water features, visually breaking up rock-lined perimeters and adding natural-looking features. To ensure your aquatic plants thrive, they should be placed in your water feature where they will receive the best possible growing conditions.

At Utah Water Gardens, we are committed to providing you with the best selection of aquatic plants and the knowledge to make your water feature a healthy and thriving ecosystem. Contact us today to learn more about our selection and how we can help you enhance your pond or water feature.