Some of the most frequently asked questions are "What plants can I overwinter?, and should I drain my pond?, and if I do clean my pond, will it kill off any benifical life?"?.

For the most part, if your temps are mild , west coast and down along the southern coasts,  Water hyacinths , parrots feather, penny wort, duckweeds and fairy moss will over winter. Duckweed and Fairy moss will sink to the bottom of the pond as temps drop, they sit in the mud on the bottom over the winter.

As the water temp rises again, so do the plants. That is why both Duckweed and Fairy moss will suddenly appear over night in your pond.

I see much todo about draining your pond and cleaning it to winterize it. In the case of extreme debris in the pond , I could see a value to this, however, the balance of your pond is upset by draining it and and refilling it. There are about 100 known microscopic beneficial  organisms that form in your pond to create a natural balance. It can take months, sometimes years , for these to develop in a pond. If you want to see some of them, you can take a childs microscope and put a drop of water on a slide and look. You dont need a expensive  microscope to see them , use the lowest power setting  and go up. You will be amazed at what you see. 

           This is hydra, one of the most common micro life you will see in pond water, get a clear glass jar put some duckweed and pond water from your pond in it, wait  for about 2 hrs you will see the hydra attached to the glass if you examine it carefully. they are about 10 to 30 mm long.      

 Refilling a pond with tap water can and will kill 99.9% of all this life.  All this water life is dependant upon one another. They form a natural balance for your pond.

Even minor amounts of debris and fish waist have thier place in the pond "tree of life " so to speak.

If you are concerned about the pond freezing and damaging the pond its self or pumps or the like, then take action accordingly.

I will tell you however , I have NEVER drained a natural bottomed pond to clean it.

Have to ever seen a lake being drained to clean it out? The answer would be no, unless it was decided it needed to be deeper.

Ponds do tend to fill in over the course of say 30 years, but to do this annually?

The answer would be no.

Many plants can be overwintered  indoors providing they get enough light,  and water changes every 30 days or so.  The temps were they are kept should never get below 50 degs. 5 gallon buckets can be perfect for this. I have a customer that purchased black plastic animal  water troughs and uses those in a heated garage to keep plants all year. He set up a a small light on a timer ,  with a plant light bulb in it and gives them 9 hrs of light a day. 

He is rather attached to his goldfish and he overwinters them this way . At the begining of spring he transfers the plants and his fish back outside.

On the subject of fish, this is something that comes up all the time, "Should I be concerned if the person I buy my plants from, has fish in with the plants"?

  the answer is YES!.

You should not buy plants from anyone that sells fish or other aquatic invertebrates, or has them mixed in with the plants they sell.  It is too easy as the season gets busy , for  such a seller to  be lax and ship you plants that were mixed in with his fish.  I thought long and hard about this issue and even in regards to my pictures I put up with my sales. I have one set of photos that show fish with a product, and its not a live plant product, its the barley balls we sell. Its obvious that the barley balls we sell would have never been used before they are shipped. So they would not have been exposed to any fish born diseases or the like.

It is also a known fact that treating with Potassium Permanganate will NOT kill all known  possible transfers from one pond to another as far as aquatic life goes. Snails are the best example of this. Any snail that has a trap door,and has it shut, can  live through a treatment of  P.P.  In fact you only have about a 30% chance of killing  snails with P.P as a result of these facts. It does have a 99.9 % kill rate on micro organisms however.

For more information of Nursery and purchasing plants see my other Guide about licensed nurserys and the requirements for them.

I hope that this information has helped answer some questions,  and please remember to vote  yes for this guide if it has helped answer some questions for you.

Thanks , and happy ponding.....