Buying Pond Plants - which is best?

To stock the new pond last year I ordered a lot of plug plants of native species and have had very mixed results so I need some more plants this year.

Potted plants are expensive at £7 a go but would establish and give good cover quickly. 

Plugs are much cheaper but how do I give them the best start?

£7 a go is about twice what I'd expect to pay - my local aquatic centre sells most of them at £3.49.

Pond plants often go short of iron, particularly if they're submerged and not potted into the right soil. A specialist pond or aquarium fertilliser will give them what they need without adding nitrates and phosphates to fuel algae growth.

Wish I lived near you then!

Thanx for the advice on fertiliser - would you go plugs or more established plants?

They're quite a big chain Maidenhead Aquatics, maybe there's one near you? http://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/storelocation.aspx

At £7 a go for pots, I'd definately go with the plugs if that's your only sourcing options! Most native aquatics grow like the clappers but species that invest a lot in their rootstocks like Butomus or Sagittaria might be better as more established plants.

Just payed slightly over £3 for some nice potted pond plants - £7 is pricey like.

See if any of your friends have some plants they've split and ask if you can buy them or if their close friends i'm sure they'd offer you them for free

I found a good website that ships pot grown plants bare root at £2-3 - they've arrived and look really healthy with good roots and top growth so I'm really happy with them.  First job of the long weekend Yay!

Thanx for all all your replies - made me realise I'm not well served locally!  Lorraine, I'm the keenest garden amongst my friends & neighbours so it's me who'll be giving these away once they're established

lol..thats very kind of you HyppyByker...maybe you'd like to share the websie

oops..i mean website

Hi 

Just found this thread

I also have problems getting affordable plants for my pond.  Would be grateful HyppyByker if you could share the website. Thanks 

I've given away and sourced lots of plants on my local freegle website. I can never understand why pond plants are so expensive especially water lilies as they grow so quickly. Why don't you try your local freegle site, you might be surprised at what other gardeners give away. I'm giving oxygenator and a jar of mud from the bottom of my pond tomorrow to a fellow recycler.

I have had one person on a Freecycle sit that gave some plants but that is the only one I've found.  Totally agree with the comment about price of pond plants.

Thanks

I always think of water lilies as being a bit like Acers. Sycamores are cheap as chips and the same goes for big lilies - plants such as N. alba soon make a rootstock you can hollow out and live in, whereas pygmies like N. helvola spend a lot of time on nurseries growing up to a saleable size. So many people buy cheaper lilies and end up having to give them away or hack them up when they outgrow their pond. The same thing happens with ghost koi..

I'm even tighter still - much of my wildlife pond stock comes from cuttings collected locally.

I've bought a couple of lillies off ebay, not that good...they put up a couple of new stems last year and this year nothing and definately not any flowers