When to buy tropical or hardy plants?

If you live in a colder climate than you should buy hardy water plants. Hardy water plants will grow from year to year in your water garden. If you do not want to buy plants each year then this is the route to go. You can also buy tropical plants in colder climates but they will only last for a year.

If you live in a warmer climate than you can buy either tropical or hardy water plants. Tropical water plants live longer in warmer climates and grow from year to year.

Shrubs

• Bog Rosemary
• Sweetshrub
• Buttonbush
• Dogwood
• Titi, Leatherwood
• Fothergilla
• Winterberry
• Anise Tree
• Sweetspire
• Spicebush
• Sweet Gale
• Swamp Redbay
• Azalea
• Willow
• Elderberry
• Snowball
• Viburnum

Bulbs

• Chinese Ground Orchid
• Quamash
• Water Canna
• Bog Lilly
• Crocosmia 'Lucifer'
• Angel's Fishing Rods
• Spider Lily

Water Lililes

• Hardy
• Tropical
  • Day-blooming
  • Night-blooming
• Lotus

Floaters

• Water Hawthorn, Cape Pondweed
• Mosquito Fern
• Water Hyacinth
• Frogbit
• Water Poppy
• Common Duckweed
• Water Clover
• Bogbean
• Pond Lily, Spatterdock
• Floating Heart
• Water Lettuce, Shellflower
• Butterfly Fern

Trees

• Japanese Maple
• Red Maple
• Shadbush, Serviceberry
• Pawpaw
• River Birch
• Redbud
• Atlantic White Cedar
• Dogwood
• Ginkgo, Maidenhair Tree
• Silverbell
• Witch Hazel
• Sweet Bay, Swamp Magnolia
• Tupelo, Black Gum

Moisture-Loving Perennials

• Jack-In-The-Pulpit
• Goatsbeard
• Swamp Milkweed
• Astilbe, False Spirea
• Astilboides Tabularis
• Black Cohosh, Black Snakeroot
• Umbrella Plant
• Joe-Pye Weed
• Queen-of the-Prairie
• Bog Avens, Indian Chocolate
• Gunnera Manicata
• Swamp Sunflower
• Common Rose Mallow
• Blazing Star, Gayfeather
• Ligularia
• Lobelia
• Water Forget-Me-Not
• Primrose
• Chinese Rhubarb
• Rodgersia

Marginal

• Sweet Flag
• Water Plantain, Mad-dog Weed
• Flowering Rush
• Bog Arum, Wild Calla
• Marsh Marigold
• Green Taro
• Umbrella Sedge
• Spike Rush
• Horsetail
• Cotton Grass
• Chameleon Plant
• Japanese Iris
• Rabbit-ear Iris
• Lousiana Hybrids
• Yellow Flag
• Siberian Iris
• Blue Flag
• Western Skunk Cabbage
• Moneywort, Creeping Jennie
• Water Mint
• Parrot's Feather
• Golden Club
• Arrow Arum
• Pickerel Weed
• Arrowhead, Swamp Potato
• Lizard's Tail
• Hardy Canna
• Eastern Skunk Cabbage
• Cattail
• Calla Lily

Grasses

• Giant Reed
• Common Quaking Grass
• Feather Reed Grass
• Palm Branch Sedge
• Drooping Sedge
• Tufted Hair Grass
• Manna Grass
• Rush
• Switchgrass
• Bulrush
• Prairie Cordgrass

Ferns

• Maidenhair Fern
• Lady Fern
• Wood Fern
• Ostrich Fern
• Sensitive Fern
• Christmas Fern
• Marsh Fern
• Chain Fern

Oxygenators

• Water Hyssop
• Fanwort, Carolina Water Shield
• Hornwort
• Anacharis
• Hair Grass
• Canadian Pondweed
• Milfoil

For a picture of where each type of water plant is located click here. To find out information about these plants search OSU PlantFacts. To find pictures of these plants search OSU Plant Dictionary.