Description

Add elegance to your water garden with Alisma plantago-aquaticum, commonly known as Water Plantain. This striking aquatic plant features broad, lanceolate leaves that form a lush, attractive base. As it matures, it sends up graceful flower stems adorned with clusters of delicate white flowers, creating a beautiful contrast against its green foliage. Known for its historical use in traditional remedies, Alisma plantago-aquaticum is sometimes referred to as “Mad Dog Weed” due to its folklore association as a cure for rabies.

Preferring consistently moist conditions, this hardy plant thrives along pond edges, water features, or in rain gardens, making it a perfect addition to damp, shaded, or sunny spots in your landscape.

Key Features:

• Broad, lanceolate leaves provide lush, attractive ground cover
• Delicate white flowers bloom on multiple stems, adding a soft, natural touch to your garden
• Known historically for its medicinal properties, sometimes called “Mad Dog Weed”
• Prefers constantly moist conditions, ideal for water gardens, ponds, or stream edges
• Low-maintenance and hardy, great for both wet and dry areas in the garden

Alisma plantago-aquaticum is a versatile and graceful addition to your garden, offering both beauty and historical charm.

Repotting or planting

9cm marginal plants require potting into a larger mesh basket. Place in a pond no deeper than 1/3 maximum recommended planting depth to allow the plants to establish. 1ltr marginal plants do not require repotting, place in the pond no deeper than 1/2 maximum recommended planting depth to allow the plants to establish, plants over 60cm height growth will benefit from repotting into a larger mesh basket or should be planted in gravel to prevent them from falling over. 3ltr and 5ltr plants do not require repotting, as they are larger more established plants they can be placed up to the maximum recommended depth. There is no need to remove the mesh basket.

Care instructions

Remove flower heads soon after flowering to encourage new flowers and prevent self-seeding. Trim old foliage after dying back in Autumn

Colour

White

Growth rate

Medium

Flowers

Jun-Aug

Sun/shade

Full sun to part shade

Season

Spring Summer

Measurements in centimetres

Height Min -Max

60-90

Depth Min-Max

1-15