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Upcoming Events
Hughes Water Gardens
Waterlily Gestival
and
Invitational Art Show
July 25 - August 2nd
Gala in the Garden
Artists' Reception
July 24th
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Tinkerbelle's
Pond Tips
 Tinkerbelle Hughes
Test Your Pond for
Water Quality
In order for fish to thrive, water conditions in the pond need to be the same or very similar to those found in nature. Improper levels can cause fish stress, which can lead to illness and death. It can also lead to unhealthy plants. Test your pond water at least once a month. Choose a kit that at least does P.H. Nitrate, Nitrite Carbonate Hardness and General Hardness, and Ammonia.
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Solar Powered Water Garden Pumps!
Now available at Hughes!
Fits in almost any bird bath!!!
Turns other ordinary Items into extraordinary fountains.
Moves Water outdoors, without using electricity
Includes five different nozzle heads.
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Zantedeschia aethiopica
Calla Lilies
 Calla lilies are a lovely addition to any water garden or landscape. They have an elegant open horn-shaped white flower that has a fragrant yellow spadix. The foliage is arrow-shaped and can be as lovely as the flower. They stand alone beautifully as a specimen or can be massed together to create a dramatic effect.
Calla lilies enjoy moist soil or being slightly submerged with 2" being the maximum amount of water over the crown of the plant. They get to 2-3 ' tall.
There are many cultivars with varied colors such as green, orange, pink and burgundy. The color varieties do not do as well in water as the white and should be lifted in the winter and stored inside.
For more on water plants click here.
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June Classes
Saturday 6th
10 am
Building Ponds & Waterfalls
2 pm
Planting Your Pond with Aquatic Plants
Saturday 13th
10 am
Building Ponds & Waterfalls
2 pm
Pondless Urns and Bubbling Rocks
Saturday 20th 10 am
Building Ponds & Waterfalls
Saturday 27th
10 am
Pondless Waterfalls & Creeks
2 PM
Pondless Urns and Bubbling Rocks
Preregistion is requested
All classes are free, 1 to 2 hours long, at our nursery
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Lotus
 The Lotus is the quintessential water
plant. Beathtaking flowers are followed by an interesting, honeycomb seed
pod. The beautiful blueish leaves stand far above the water like spinning
saucers. Beads of water collect on the shallow, bowled leaves and roll around like
mercury in the reflecting sunlight. In many cultures the lotus represents
"enlightenment," with its ability to rise above the mud and become a
beautiful flower. Cultures around the world have long revered the lotus
for its religious, medicinal and nutritional value.
Lotus vary in size from miniature to a
huge standard size, which can stand 6-7 feet above the water's surface. The
flowers open in mid-morning and close in the mid-afternoon. Each flower lasts
three days before the petals fall away, revealing a distinctive seed pod. The
pods continue to grow another 6 weeks until they have doubled in size. The flowers
blend shades of white, pink, red and yellow.
To get the plants off to the best start, we do not release our lotus for
sale until they are well established and thriving. When you take your plant
home, please follow these care instructions to ensure the continued health of
the plant:
If your pond temperatures stay low in the summer, try your lotus in
waterbowls where the water temperature is higher. Lotus can be a challange
but they are worth it.
For more on The Lotus click here
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Dionaea muscipula - Venus Flytrap
For the last three years Hughes Water
Gardens has been expanding its carnivorous plant selection.  This year we have
begun selling Venus Flytraps.
Venus Flytraps are possibly the coolest carnivorous plant. Venus Flytraps produce a rosette of short leaves that hug the surface of the ground with a trap at each tip. The plant lures their prey using sweet smelling nectar. The two wide open lobes snap shut when the insect comes into contact with the hairs on the inner surface - this is one of the few plant capable of rapid movement. Next the plant secretes and enzyme which essentially 'dissolves' the insect. The digestion takes about ten days.
In nature these plants are found in the open, sunny, damp grasslands of southeastern North Carolina and extreme northeastern South Carolina. They prefer the edges of swamps and ponds in peaty and sandy soil. It is best to try to copy these conditions when growing these at home - wet roots, high humidity, full sunlight, and poor, acidic soil ( 3.9 to 4.8 P.H.) Grow in sphagnum moss mixed with peat or sand. Do not water with tap water. It is better to use rain water or distilled water and not to fertilize. They can live underwater for months, so over watering should not be a problem.
In order to provided high humidity, you can either plant your Venus Flytrap in a terrarium (though do not put the terrarium in a sunny location) or place it on a tray of pebbles with a small amount of water. Remember your Venus Flytrap will experience a dormant period from Thanksgiving to Valentine's day. Do not discard it during this time.
If grown outside your Venus Flytrap will not need additional food. However, if you grow it inside, a couple of houseflies per month is enough food during the growing season. Do not feed it hamburger! Rot will usually occur. Another interesting fact is that if you feed the plant something inedible, after approximately twelve hours it well spit it out. Never artfully spring the trap. This often kills the trap.
After your plant matures, it may produce flowers on a tall stalk far above the leaves. It has to be high above the leaves so insects pollinating the flowers do not get trapped in the leaves. Each flower produces very tinny seeds.
The Venus Flytrap is by far one of the most interesting bog plants. Give it try!
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Bamboo
Who doesn't love bamboo? The elegant green stalks (called culms) grow like a forest with a canopy of rustling green, sword-shaped leaves. Chinese painters and poets have been capturing the distinctive looks and peaceful aura of bamboo for three thousand years. And in that time people have learned to take advantage of its strong, fibrous structure to make nearly everything: roofs, walls, flooring, plywood, tool handles, paper, incredibly soft clothing, rope, sculptures, and of course, water features. It is also a delicious, high-fiber vegetable!
In general bamboo likes rich, well drained soil and a fair amount of water and sunlight. Bamboo leaves shed throughout the year and form an attractive, beneficial mulch that is worth leaving in place since it contains nitrogen and silicates the growing bamboo need. Fertilizing in spring with a high-nitrogen grass fertilizer (20-10-10, for example) is also a good idea.
Bamboo are divided into two categories: running and clumping. The running varieties are quite common and are classically beautiful. However, they can be invasive and people can avoid sinking a three foot plastic barrier around their bamboo by keeping them in large pots or troughs. (But, they are happier in open ground). Another solution is to use the clumping varieties, which many consider just as beautiful, incredibly colorful, just as vigorous, even denser in growth habit, and spread outward gradually and progressively, filling a space without invading neighboring flowerbeds or yards.
Hughes has a nice selection of both running and clumping bamboo for our customers to choose from.
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Hardy Fuchsias
Hardy fuchsias are indeed just what they say hardy
in the Pacific Northwest! They bloom all summer, love moist soil (with good drainage). Mildly humid air, and full sun to part sun (annual fuchsias like full to part shade). They are
a great plant for around your pond.
Hardy fuchsias bloom from early June until the first hard frost of early winter. The blooms are loved by hummingbirds and
butterflies and can be single, semi-double, double
or triphylla (tubular single flowers). The delicate petals have a wide rage of
colors from red, white, pink and purple and are often bi-colored with a corolla
of one hue and a tube and 4 sepals of another.
Hardy Fuchsias transplant
best when bought as a bigger plant, (at least a gallon container). Plant the base of the stem 2 inches below the
soil surface and provide a deep winter mulch in colder areas. Top growth, may die off off during colder winters but the plant should come back in the spring.
They loved to be fed, fertilize with a slow release granulars, at the first sign of leaves and periodically
throughout the summer.
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Our Mailing Address
25289 SW Stafford Rd, Tualatin, OR 97062
Spring and Summer Hours
Monday - Saturday
9 to 6
Sunday
10 to 5
Our Telephone
503-638-1709
Copyright (C) 2008 Hughes Water Gardens. All rights reserved
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