Product Overview
Water Celery (Oenanthe javanica)
Green water celery is a great plant in ponds using plants for water filtering!
While many plants may be used in a plant filter, green water celery is our #1 recommendation. Water celery is a very fast grower, which is important for filtration because the faster a plant grows, the more nutrients it absorbs from the water, purifying the water and out-competing algae for nutrients.
If you don't have a formal plant filter, tuck water celery behind and between rocks along your pond edge or streambed.
Water celery has a long growing season, starting earlier and ending later than almost any other pond plant; it even remains evergreen and grows through the winter in mild-winter climates.
Water celery is short to medium in height, with a neat and clean appearance; if it becomes overcrowded or leggy, simply prune back and it will regrow quickly--pruning is what removes nutrients permanently from the water feature.
In addition, water celery has small but pretty flat umbels of white blooms, and the young leaves and stems are edible, both raw in a salad and cooked in soups and stews.
There is also a variegated form of water celery named 'Flamingo' that we carry. If you are buying water celery for ornamental value, you probably want to buy variegated water celery. If you are buying water celery primarily as a filtering plant the variegated form will work, but because of its variegation it won't grow as fast and absorb nutrients as quickly, so you will need to use more of it to have the same degree of filtration.
Hardiness Zone: 4-10
Planting Container: We recommend a small to medium planting bag, or directly in the gravel of a plant filter
Light Requirements: full sun to part shade
Height: 10"-30" - Spread: Groundcover, spreads rapidly
Water Depth: Moist Soil to Shallow Water (up to 6" depth)
For planting instructions see our: Planting Instructions for Bog Plants Page.
