Typha - Cattails
| The Cattails or Typha are those reeds with chocolate-colored late summer and early autumn poker-like seed heads, which are sometimes referred to as Bulrushes. They are greatly appreciated by flower arrangers, who love to dry them for winter decoration. However, with exception of the small-growing Typha minima, they cannot be unreservedly recommended for the average garden pond.
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 Typha minima
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 Typha latifolia
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They are vigorous and invasive and require very carefully handling. Typha minima is no problem as it is clump-forming, has thin needle-like leaves and small, rounded brown heads on stems no more than 45cm tall. The larger growing kinds like Typha latifolia and T.angustifolia are really only suited to natural wildlife features. They can be planted directly into mud on the pond floor and can be controlled by soil profiling. That is creating deeper areas where the plants cannot prosper. They are then confined to the shallows where they create the desired effect. There is a species called T.laxmanii or T.stenophylla, which in appearance is an intermediate between T.minima and the larger species.
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This can be grown with care in the garden pond if restricted to a proper aquatic planting basket, but it does not have the charm of the smaller species nor the majesty of the vigorous kinds.Typha are planted between spring and late summer in either heavy loam soil or a proprietary aquatic planting compost. Top-dress the compost with fine washed pea shingle to prevent the compost from dispersing into the water. When planting into a natural soil-bottomed pond, wrap each plant in burlap with a generous quantity of soil and lower into their final positions. This hastens successful rooting. Remove faded foliage as fall approaches and feed during summer using an aquatic plant fertilizer. Propagation is by division in the spring.
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 Typha can be controlled by soil profiling.
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