When you first walk into the store there is a large indoor koi pond. The people that work there always bring the kids food so they can feed the fish. Both of my girls have gotten very brave and will hand feed them. The fish practically jump out of the water trying to get to the food.
Right now they have a HUGE koi being housed there for someone. If I remember correctly "Grace" is about 7 years old and was living in a greenhouse pond where her water temperature was kept in the 70's. She is about 40 pounds! Someone there told me if she was for sale (which she is not) she would be worth... $55,000!
She is in a very large tank with two other big koi. She absolutely dwarfs the other koi, and they are very large koi themselves.
When you exit the store you enter into the display pond area. They are all beautiful! One day I would love to have a pond installed by them. I asked about the plantings and was shown how they plant everything. They used the black plastic mesh plant pots so that the roots can filter the water. They used regular pea gravel to plant in, nothing fancy at all. They also combine several plants into one planter and then put them in the pond. I had never thought about trying that before.
There were koi of all different sizes in all of the ponds. Many people were buying koi the day we visited.
One of the new plants I bought was called Indian rhubarb (Darmera peltata), it's the plant on the left. It gets sprays of pink flowers in early spring. I don't have room for something as large as Gunnera and this to me is a nice substitution.
Clematises were growing all over the fence behind this pond.
I love this little stream.
I noticed that I have a couple of waterlily buds in my pond, and if it ever warms up again they might bloom. It was so nice having those few days of sun last weekend, but it's back to the upper 50's and drizzly rain again. I'm hoping the sun will return so I can put some of the ideas I got from the pond displays into my own pond.
All words and photos are property of A Gardener in Progress.
Look at that !! great fishes !!..lovely weekend darling...your garden looks nice !!! so beautiful......xxx....
ReplyDeleteI once saw a show about a koi named Four Step Rose who had surgery.
ReplyDeleteA 44 pound 7 year old koi was one HAPPY fish! I couldn't even imagine. I love how the ponds have a naturalistic look and just flow so well. They are so relaxing.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures! I will happily send you some of our hot weather. Hugs!
ReplyDeleteCatherine,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great trip, beautiful photos of the fish and the ponds. I still like yours, looks so natural.
Eileen
First off, those pics are beautiful. Second, I also dream of a pond someday. And third, those koi are huge and well fed! Have a good weekend:)
ReplyDeleteOh, Catherine, those ponds and fish are really thrilling. I, too, like your pond. It's very well done and so pretty. I wish I had room for a pond. Maybe you could glass in your backyard - and like Grace, the big koi, be nice and warm. Gardening under glass? Sounds good for you. In Florida it would be a death trap, no joke. The broker I work for has a house listed for sale with a huge glass room in full sun with a little bitty AC unit. What were they thinking???
ReplyDeleteI would worry about a koi that size in my pond, some heron would have a meal. There were some beautiful display ponds at the centre. Hope it warms up enough to get out and enjoy the garden this weekend.
ReplyDeleteWow - that's a big koi! I love watching fish in ponds. You are lucky to have such a beautiful pond :-)
ReplyDeleteThe koi pond at the farm has fish ten and twelve years old and I have no idea what they weigh, but it seems like Grace would be older than seven since she is so large. I like feeding them too, they come swimming up every time I approach. The pond is beautiful there, large too.
ReplyDeleteHow fun! Reminds me of when I lived near Sacramento. There's an aquarium store in the downtown area that has a similar indoor koi pond, as you go in the front entrance. They had old bubblegum machines filled with koi food. You'd pop in a quarter (which helped cover the cost of feeding the koi I suppose), and you could hand feed them the little pellets. Grace is gorgeous, but the price of real koi is why we used to stock our pond with your everyday pond goldfish. I was surprised how large some of them grew! Their gardens look beautiful, but I love the little stream, and am wanting to do something similar here.
ReplyDeleteI really love the ponds! I wanted to create a container pond this summer but I'm not sure what I would do to keep it from cracking this winter since we can get to 0 degrees. An in-ground pond isn't an option because of my dogs. The koi are gorgeous!!
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine a Koi costing $55,000....inconceivable! The pond place has some wonderful settings. I love that Clematis on the fence...that is a lot of flowers!! Pond gardening is a whole other field of interest and knowledge!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a fabulous place, Catherine. No wonder Littlest Gardener wanted to go there again. I have a Darmera peltata and if you like I can send you a photo of it. I bought it two years ago and this year it's really taking off. I have it planted outside the pond. I can't tell from your photo whether the display plant is in water or on the banks. Love that fish called Grace. Wish I was worth that much. LOL
ReplyDeleteWhen we first came to Pondside we tried Gunnera down by the pond and it didn't survive the winter. For the past 7 years we've had it behind an enormous boulder, in a very soggy bit of garden and it has come back every year.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a really cool store! Did you happen to notice if they had water hyacinth? I need some for my waterfall.
ReplyDeleteI hope the sun comes back soon, so your lily will open. That stream looks cool, so colorful. When we had a pond all we ever stocked was goldfish. They were cheap, and if they died or a raccoon got them, it wasn't an expensive loss.
I think you will like that Darmera, I have that too, and I love it.
I so love your pond. The clematis in the back is beautiful. It looks so peaceful. I cannot believe how a fish as big as that koi can look so graceful. Thanks for the tour.
ReplyDeleteHoly Wow! Your pond is amazing! My little stock tank only has small comets. Large or small, water features are my favorite. Wow, I can't get over how gorgeous you pond is.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful place to visit, don't you wish that we had backyards like that?
ReplyDeleteGrace is a "big girl", kind of like our Boo, LOL.
I love the indian rhubarb, wonder how hardy it is.
OK, here's the funny thing, I have been noticing that I am not signed in as a follower on so many blogs, so I made sure to do that today. And I liked your FB page, glad to see it.
Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams
I wish that one of these ponds were mine, the ones in this post are all display gardens.
ReplyDeleteThe prices of the plants were much lower than I've seen at the nearby nurseries as well.
Grace - Yes I'd love to see a picture of the Darmera, especially if you have one with the flowers. They had it right in the pond, so that's were mine is - on a shelf planted in pea gravel.
Jen - I think it should be hardy here, the owner said it would be at least. You could try growing one in a water garden on your deck I bet.
this is sooo pretty...:)
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful (and educational) tour. I do love the koi, but my stream is too shallow for big fish. Thanks for sharing all the ideas and photos.
ReplyDeleteBEAUTIFUL Koi photos!!!! That one, "Grace" is amazing! I have never seen one so large. I love the fish. Our 4 fish seems to be doing fine and getting along together. Great pond shots! Good idea on the plantings for the ponds- the mesh and pea gravel- I have not tried that either. All I have right now is a single lily pad plant which seems to be very happy.
ReplyDeleteHi Catherine, I enjoyed reading your post this morning with my coffee in hand :) This pond shop looks lovely! I love the combinations of grasses and small trees to hang over the ponds and streams. I hope your new plant addition will be the perfect fit! It's amazing how large some koi can get and then the price tag associated...lol! My rotten cat would have a hay day if I had fish in the yard. Fingers x'd we get some sunshine this weekend. Hugs, Jenni
ReplyDeleteOh those koi carp are so beautiful and those display ponds are something I could only dream of having in my own garden. I've only got newts growing in the pond just now.
ReplyDeleteRosie
Oh my what a gorgeous pond. Would I love to have a big one like that.Just do not have a good location here to put one. That is one whopper of a Koi.The price!! Wow!
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing in this world like a water garden.
ReplyDeletethose huge koi kind of freak me out! your girls are brave, ha.
ReplyDeletewhat a neat place to visit. your pond already looks just as good as all those featured, though!
I love koi carp. The Japanese used to believe that because they were unafraid of people and would come up and nibble fingers, that they were the re-incarnated souls of warriors! Great post!
ReplyDeleteThat's a fun store. Loving all the ponds. I wonder who would pay that much for fish...huge koi and price.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tour.
Thank you for taking us along with you on this lovely outing! Grace is one lucky fishy! Thanks also to Matron for the interesting observation :)
ReplyDeleteI keep returning to this one...I have such serious pond envy. What wonderful life it brings. We don't seem to have one inch of space for one, but I'm scratching my head and trying to reconfigure flower beds (which Jeff fears since he moved tons of ledge-rock).
ReplyDeleteLove,
S
Very pretty! I'd hate to be responsible for such an expensive fish!
ReplyDelete