A spotlight on the Louisiana Iris
Louisiana Iris is the Louisiana state wildflower. It covers bayous and swamps in the Louisiana spring. I use them in most ponds, in the water and out.
See pictures of hybrids. Find growing conditions. If you are looking for an iris that loves wet feet, this is the place for information on this striking plant
See pictures of hybrids. Find growing conditions. If you are looking for an iris that loves wet feet, this is the place for information on this striking plant
Louisiana Iris
The Louisiana State Wildflower is an early bloomer that covers Louisiana in the spring.John James Audubon was the first to call a Louisiana Iris by that name.In 1941 the Society for Louisiana Irises was formed. The hybridizers began crossing the native species, and wonderful variations of irises were developed and eventually grown all over the country.
What is being grown today are the hybrids of the native Louisiana iris. It is not unusual for the total bud count to be as many as ten.
In June, most Louisiana irises are finished blooming for the year, but the strap leaf foliage is a striking shape in the pond and in the garden.
I use the iris both inside the water and outside near pond edges. It gives the illusion that the pond is larger and continues forever.
How to Grow Louisiana Iris
Growing a Louisiana Iris is as easy as making sure it has wet feet. It grows wild in the bayous of Louisiana and fills them with color by the end of March every year. Our iris has become popular with pond and water garden keepers who use it in and around ponds.It has a fan shaped, strap leaf system and divides by corms that arrive each spring. If you want to divide them, and I do regularly, remove the plant from the ground or the pot, cut it where the corms come together and pot up each corm. Always wait until the iris has finished blooming before you divide your irises. If you divide too early, you will not have blooms.
I always cut the plant back in late fall before new growth starts, so the new leaves have room to come up and thrive. If the plant is in pond water, no fertilization is ever needed; the fish poop is the best ever. If the Iris is in the ground, most any fertilizer will do. I am an organic gardener and use water from the fish pond.
If you have a low spot in your garden and water tends to stand there, plant irises there. You will have dramatic spring color and no longer have to try to grow grass in that low spot.
A Louisiana iris is a wonderful and colorful bog or rain garden plant. If you have created a rain garden, you can't go wrong planting it with Louisiana Irises
Where can I Buy a Louisiana Iris
If you are looking for the beautiful Louisiana Iris for your pond, you can find it here:
- Where can I Buy the Louisiana Iris
- Buy a Louisiana Iris or the wonderful hybrid, the Black Gamecock Iris here. Find other bog plants.
All plants are shipped second day air to ensure freshness.
How to Build a Backyard Pond
Building a backyard garden pond with the pondlady
Find step by step instructions with photographs. Build your own pond in a weekend.
- How to Build a Backyard Pond
- A pond will be a dramatic addition to your landscape. Learn to build yours here.
- Where to Buy Pond Supplies
- We furnish everything but the water.
Oxygenating Plants
Oxygenating plants balance a pond
Learn why oxygenating plants are vital to a healthy pond. They provide oxygen for the fish, food for the fish and are filters for susended debris.
- Oxygenating Plants
- Check out some varieties of oxygenating or submerged plants for the pond.
- Where to Buy Oxygenating Plants
- Find oxygenating plants or submerged grasses here. Always check with your local extension service to see if these plants are legal in your state. Some of them can be invasive in local waterways.
Shipping is from March to October. Plants are always shipped second day air to ensure freshness.
Bog Plants
Louisiana Iris are not the only bog plants. See many others here.
- Bog Plants for Your Backyard Pond
- Learn how to grow bog plants, or maybe how not to keep them from taking over.
- Where to Buy Bog Plants
- Bog plants add architecture to the pond. The stalks arch dramatically into the air and wave in the breeze.
The Louisiana Iris is a favorite, but there are dozens more than can grace your pond. Find them here.
Ponds, plants and fish
Check out this pond.
Floating Plants
See what floating plants will be best in your pond
Floating plants add beauty plus shade and protection for your fish.
- Floating Plants
- See floating plants for your pond.
- Where to Buy Floating Plants
- We carry many floating plants. Find what you like that will add beauty to your pond.
All plants are shipped from May to October.
Shipping is second day air to ensure freshness.
Build your own water feature
Do it yourself projects written by the pondlady on her pondlady.com site.
- How to Build a Waterfall
- To build a waterfall, read a few of my tips and tricks. You can build a professional looking waterfall in just a couple of hours.
- Build an Inexpensive Pond
- You can build an inexpensive pond easily and in a weekend. It can look as beautiful as any that a professional has done and you will not have spent a fortune.
- Build a Rain Garden
- Build a rain garden and conserve water at the same time. Learn a few simple ways to make a rain garden.
- How to build a small pond
- Small ponds in limited spaces are very difficult to design and install. When confronted with building a small pond, we pond builders tend to call it a design challenge. See some of the ways to overcome the small pond challenge
- How to build a Pondless Waterfall
- Pondless waterfalls are another wonderful way to have a water feature in your yard or garden. You can have a waterfall with no pond, no fish, no green water to worry about. A pondless waterfall is also great for a small space.
- How to Build a Koi Pond
- Building a koi pond is different than building a goldfish pond or water garden. Let's talk about how to build a koi pond.
- How to Build a Natural Swimming Pond
- Natural swimming ponds are all the rage. Many people in Europe already do have natural swimming ponds and they are catching on quickly in America.
- How to Build a Bog Garden (Rain Garden)
- Building a bog garden, one of many forms of rain gardens is a great way to conserve water and add another element to your garden.
- How to Build an Indoor Pond
- You want to build an indoor pond, because you have no place to put it outside or just love the soothing sound of water bubbling in the house. You can have an indoor pond cheaply and easily.
- How to Build a Natural Swimming Pond - English Style
- How to build a swimming pond that uses no chlorine, no chemicals and looks like a natural pond in your landscape.
- How to Build an Above Ground Pond
- Occasionally ponds must be built above ground. Either the location is under trees and digging would injure the tree, the pond is to be on concrete, so digging is impossible or the pond builder is a tenant and wants to take the pond along when moving.
Liners, filters, skimmers, UV lights?
Choosing the right equipment for your pond
- Pond Gadgets
- As we begin our pond keeping hobby, we find that we need certain pond gadgets. Pond gadgets are things we don't use often, but when we need them, we need them now, not tomorrow or on Monday.
- Backyard Pond Pumps
- Many backyard pond pumps to choose from: Which one is best for me?
- Faux Rocks - The real deal
- Faux rocks are a great substitute for expensive, heavy and unwieldy rocks for pond and waterfall building
- Epoxy Pond Liners
- Epoxy pond liners are coming into their own. Now we have another choice when it comes to materials to line our ponds
- Pond Filters and Skimmers, Do I Need Them?
- Pond filters and skimmers have been sold to the public as necessary equipment for your pond, but are they always?
- Pond Filtration
- Figuring out pond filtration can be a chore. I have tried to explain what pond filtration means and some different ways to do it. And choices if you choose not to use pond filtration.
- Choosing a Backyard Pond Pump
- From initial cost to running cost, what pump is best for your pond? There are hundreds of pond pumps to choose from: Be sure you pick what is right for you.
Pond plants
What pond plants do I need? What plants can I have?
- Duckweed and Water Fern
- Duckweed and water fern are floating pond plants. They probably the most invasive and noxious of all of the floating plants.
- Umbrella and Pitcher
- Pond plant choices are many and varied. We want early bloomers, late bloomers, hardy or tropical. For every pond and bog there are plants that will thrive. Two are spotlighted here.
- Floating Pond Plants
- Floating pond plants are a necessity for the ecologically balanced pond. Like submerged vegetation, they are workhorses in your pond.
- Water Lilies
- Water lilies are often the reason we have ponds. Water lilies lend an exotic look to the pond that we treasure, taking little care and offering much enjoyment.
- Pond Plants: Arrow Arum
- Arrow arum is one of the dozens of marginal or bog plants that do well in the ornamental backyard pond.
Pond Maintenance
Keep your pond running clean and heathy. Learn how to deal with problems and disasters.
- Routine Pond Maintenance
- Now that I have a backyard pond, what routine pond maintenance is needed? I have heard they are practically maintenance free. Find out how maintenance free a pond can be.
- Pond Algae: Green Pond Blues
- You don't have to suffer the pond algae and green pond blues. A green pond is normal and happens easily. Your pond has turned to pea soup overnight. What can you do now? Here are several ways to keep your pond clean and clear.
- My Pond is Leaking
- Learning how to repair your pond liner is the most difficult problem to solve in pond keeping. You must find holes and patch them and very often that is not an easy task.
- Pond Cleaning-Step by Steps Instructions for Cleaning the Garden Pond
- Pond cleaning is not for the faint of heart! Step by step instructions for cleaning your garden pond.
- Pond Disasters
- Pond disasters can happen to any pond or water garden. They are usually simple to find and easy to repair. Often a pond problem develops quickly when the ecosystem gets out of balance. How you can find your pond problems and solve them yourself with quick and easy solutions.
- Spring Pond Care
- Spring pond care is essential and easy. Follow the the tips below to give your plants and fish an easy transition from winter torpor to spring awakening, so your pond, fish and plants can give you pleasure all summer long.
- Summertime Pond Care
- Summertime pond care is only a bit different than spring pond care. When summertime weather hits, we must take a few precautions to ensure fish health.
- Fall Pond Care
- Fall pond care involves a few different approaches to pond care.
- Winter Pond Care - pond equipment
- Winter pond care means special care for pumps, filters, hoses and supplies as well as pond dwellers.
- Winter Pond Care - Plants and Fish
- Winter pond care requires some special care, not much, but just a few things to watch. If you have not done all the nasty fall care, you must do it now. Trying to remove debris through the ice is impossible.
- Pond Troubleshooting - a Case Study
- Pond troubleshooting is much like any other troubleshooting. Eliminate the easy problems first and then start hunting.
Pond inhabitants
Fish, frogs, toads, tadpoles, snakes, raccoons
- Choosing Goldfish for Your Pond
- Choosing goldfish for your pond can be simple if you follow a few tips. When you are choosing goldfish, shop at a pet or fish store, limit your choices, don't buy too many and don't spend much money.
- Toads and Frogs in your Backyard Pond
- Frogs, toads and backyard ponds go together. We build wildlife resorts in our back yard complete with room service, 400 count sheets and chocolates on the pillows and wonder why we get nightly applause from our invited amphibious residents.
Pondlady's Picks
Books that the pondlady is particularly fond of.
- The Complete Book of The Water Garden
- The Complete Book of the Water Garden, by Philip Swindells and David Mason is arguably the finest, most comprehensive water gardening book ever written.
- The Curious Gardener's Almanac, a Review
- The Curious Gardener's Almanac, centuries of practical garden wisdom, by Niall Edworthy, published by The Penguin Group in New York is not a book about ponds. In fact, it is not a book about gardens either. This book has no pigeon hole in which to be pushed.
- All about the Pond, Book Review-Evan-Moor publishers.
- A great book for teachers of small children with many resources in one great book.
- Miracle-Gro Water Gardens, a Review
- MIracle-Gro has produced one fine pond help book. The very best part of it is that it is spiral bound, so it will lie flat, and waterproof so you can take it outside with you, put it on the ground for reference and clean it up later.
- The Pond Owner's Problem Solver, a Review
- The Pond Problem Solver by John Dawes, Book review, how to build a pond, where to put a pond, fish, fish diseases, pond maintenance, pond plants
- The Creative Herbal Home
- The Creative Herbal Home is certainly not a book you would expect to see in the backyard water garden section of Garden and Hearth. So why is it here?
Miscellaneous pond information
Bits and pieces of pond information I have learned along the way.
- Water Conservation and Your Backyard Pond
- Our water crisis is worsening, but ponds can be a way of water conservation, not waste. Find ways to conserve water by using efficient pumps, statuary and solar power.
- Starting a Pond and Water Garden Society?
- Pond and water garden societies can be a great educational tool for pond keepers. If you don't have one near you, here's how to start a pond and water garden society.
- Decorate Your Pond for the Holidays
- Decorate your pond when you decorate your house for the holidays
- Attracting Winter Wildlife to Your Backyard Pond
- In the winter our ponds lie dormant, or do they? We can keep a water supply open and give our winter garden creatures a drink and something to eat.
- Ponds, schools, and kids
- Ponds and kids go together. Schools and ponds go together. Use a pond across the entire curriculum to teach kids.
Ask the Pondlady
If you have pond plant questions, ask me.
When you are ready to plant your pond and are looking for ideas or have questions, you can ask them here.
Phildave wrote...
Hi,
Really GREAT lens.
It was particularily interesting for me as each year I try to grow Bananas (see Growing Bananas Plants) and each year only my Basjoo's survive - all the others just die in our UK winters. Even the Basjoo's have to be wrapped up in horticultural Fleece and then an old blanket to get through the winter so seeing your photo's makes me quite jealous :)
Phil
Posted March 11, 2009
Cabanalolita wrote...
The Louisiana Iris is a very lovely flower. Loved the lens. Favorited your lens. Check out my lens on Croton plants. Beautiful Things In My South Florida World!
Posted September 12, 2008
hearthealth wrote...
Personally, the banana plant as a pond plant is one eye-opener. 5 flamin' and favin'~ thanks for visiting me!
Posted June 04, 2008
gwkell wrote...
Thanks for the great lens. I'd like more information about Beauty Supplies and the beautiful Louisiana Iris.
Posted February 28, 2008
Evelyn_Saenz wrote...
The Purple Gallinules just flew over to check out your lens. The lilies are very inviting.
Posted February 15, 2008
From the Pondlady's Pad
The pondlady's blog covers everything from how to build a pond to troubleshooting, maintenance and even takes your specific questions. You will receive a personal answer from the pondlady.
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- The musings of the pondlady with pond and water gardening tips, pond questions answered and up to date information shared.
- Pond equipment and supplies
- At the pondlady's online pond shop, you can find pond supplies and equipment, accessories, decor; everything you need for your pond, but the water.
- The pondlady writes
- Read all about ponds at Garden and Hearth. Goldfield writes regular articles at this exciting and informative web site. Check it out.
Read about Louisiana Irises
As a pond builder, I use Louisiana irises in and out of the pond. Find out about the iris and the many hybrids in these books
The Louisiana Iris: The Taming of a Native American Wildflower
Amazon Price: (as of 07/11/2009) 
Gift of the Wild Things
Amazon Price: (as of 07/11/2009)
Handbook of the Society for Louisiana Irises.
Amazon Price: (as of 07/11/2009)
The Louisiana Iris: The History and Culture of Five Native American Species and Their Hybrids
Amazon Price: (as of 07/11/2009)
News for and from gardeners
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Pond Plants on eBay
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by pondlady
When Jan Goldfield took up the task of building a pond in her backyard in 1987, it was strictly as a hobby. Once completed, Goldfield´s garden and po... (more)
