Pond plant passion

Brian Williams loves big plants. When he started breeding, his goal was to create the biggest, most outrageous, over-the-top plants he could. However, once he realized that not everyone wants 15-foot-tall plants in their backyard, his business, Brian’s Botanicals, started to grow like one of his monster alocasias.

“I like the idea of making something that nobody’s seen before,” Williams says. “Boxwoods never excited me too much.” 

Although he comes from a family of plantsmen, Williams took a roundabout route to becoming a breeder and running a nursery. It all started with turtles. As a child, Williams built a pond for his pet turtles. He used aquatic and tropical plants to create a natural habitat for them.

“Eventually I had fewer and fewer turtles and more and more plants,” he says.

Williams showcases his creations on his website, and he shared five of his favorite aquatic plants with Garden Center magazine:
 

Colocasia Painted Black Gecko

Colocasia Painted Black Gecko ppaf is an extremely dark dwarf colocasia that grows between 2 and 3 feet tall. The leaves are as dark as coal and usually around 1 foot long and 8 inches wide. We picked this one due to its extremely dark coloring both on the leaves and petioles. Colocasia Painted Black Gecko ppaf is a dwarf colocasia but it reminds me of a large growing caladium due to its small stature and over all shape. It should be great to use alongside colorful caladiums as something just a tad larger and much darker. I personally want to grow a cluster of Colocasia Painted Black Gecko beside or behind some solid white caladiums such as Caladium ‘Candidum’ since the contrast would be amazing.
 

Canna Lemon Punch

This hybrid is a dwarf grower, 3 to 4 feet tall, with bright yellow flowers and light green leaves. Canna Lemon Punch shares bloodlines with Canna Orange Punch and has a very similar growth and flowering habit. It constantly flowers during the summer months and is a self-cleaning canna, shedding the old flowers after blooming.
 

Thalia dealbata

Thalia dealbata, also known as alligator flag, is a bog to aquatic plant growing on the banks of creeks and rivers in southern states. The plant is very hardy to zone 6 or more. The leaves resemble a canna leaf — large, green and spear-shaped — and it is held on top of 3- to 4-foot petioles. The small purple flowers are held high on a tall stem. If looked at closely, the flowers look a bit like an orchid. Another odd fact about the flower is its amazing way of pollinating. If an insect enters the flower and touches the stigma, it causes the staminoid or a small arm-like structure to release its tension, hitting the insect with pollen. Sometimes it traps insects and kills them.
 

Colocasia Bikini-tini

This plant has overwintered for 3 years in zone 6 Kentucky. Colocasia Bikini-tini has very dark stems with green leaves and dark veins under the leaves. The plant has very unique leaves that cup up to hold water. Just watch out after it rains because every leaf is full of water. I also believe this plant is a polyploid because the leaves are so thick, and it is completely sterile. This plant grows 5 to 7 feet tall and has great presents the landscape.
 

Colocasia Red Eyed Gecko

The Red Eyed Gecko is a bright chartreuse plant growing 4 to 6 feet tall. The petioles are white to light pink in color. The foliage is a bright chartreuse and has a reddish to pink dot in the center of each leaf, giving it the name Colocasia Red Eyed Gecko. This is a great plant for contrasting with darker foliage plants and should contrast well with other Colocasias.

Garden Center managing editor Michelle Simakis contributed to this article. Plant information courtesy of Brian’s Botanicals website, www.briansbotanicals.net. All images courtesy of Brian's Botanicals.

Matt McClellan is managing editor of sister publication Nursery Management.