What plants for moist soil? I have not heard good things about cattails. Is it a thug?

New Garden? New Plants? But What Plants For Moist Soil?

What plants for moist soil? Guess I will be doing a lot of research for a new garden. As gardeners, we know to plan well for the perennials you may wish to plant since each plant needs to be suitable for the conditions where it is to be located. Why am I planting more? Don’t I have too much to handle already?

Well, if you have followed my discussions on Facebook, I am selling my house and moving to a new one, hopefully in the spring….or earlier if I should be so lucky to sell quickly.

Plants for Moist Soil - My 5 discoveries

We haven’t really decided upon a house yet, but…

I really like this place we have toured twice so far. ( Yes, we are a realtor’s nightmare client.) It does have an area in the rear yard that is moist and I foresee some drainage issues. We may need to install a French drain or catch basin of some sort. We are planning to have a landscape designer take a look at the location before we even put a contract on it, so that we know what expense we are looking at and how soon it could be done. Would I be looking at this year? Or would it be something for the second year?

Anyway, the gardener in me immediately wants to know what plants are for moist soil. Isn’t that the way of things? And I can just see a large hypertufa trough with baby tears or some mosses sitting out there!

So I am researching those plants and will be on the lookout for sales!…or take them with me if at all possible if I have some growing here. I know I would need to be sure the buyer of my property doesn’t have a problem with that . Plus the weather would need to give me the right conditions to dig and pot up for a move.

Will it be too early to dig some plants for moist soil

So these are 5 plants for moist soil that I may try out in the moist area. In this case, there are some small trees along that area which I may or may not keep. It seems that some of them are too close to the house and would block the view, so they would have to go. Don’t need an Ant Bridge to the eaves or roof. Or a Squirrel Bridge. No! No! ( With no leaves, I can only guess they are those honeysuckle big shrub/trees and I have had my fill of those at my current home. )

Visit my affiliate page to check out items I use . I am an Amazon affiliate and can earn a commission if you should make a purchase. Thanks for your support of my site. https://www.amazon.com/shop/kimsgardens 

Hardy Hibiscus

Hibiscus is great for moist soil

I have one of these already here in my current garden, but I am not sure I will dig it up. It is a Kopper King and has come back for the past few years and has been very reliable. I may try this because the flowers are large and striking. At the house I am favoring, the garden would be just beyond the deck, so I could see them from the house easily. I don’t have a view of my garden in my current house. ( At least through the windows.)

Spiderwort

Spiderwort - This one's a plant for moist soil

These pretty purple flowers blooms easily all spring and into summer. And they spread too!  So I know I could count on them to fill and area quickly if they are happy there. I could dig some of these possibly, but I can also find them easily for sale at the local garden centers.  I think a winding drift of these would be pretty.

Cannas

In my zone, I need to dig them up after frost kills them.

For some height, I am surprised to find out that cannas can grow in moist soil and even in standing water! Who knew? Some of the foliage on cannas is so pretty that you hardly need the bloom too. So I would get a lot of bang for the buck, so to speak.  I don’t have any of these presently, but I always see them at the Master Gardener’s Sale in the spring. Score!

Ligularia

Ligularia Bottle Rocket - Good for Moist Soil

The bottle rocket or Ligularia sounds like a striking plant that I may want to try. I know I have seen these but I have not grown them myself. But I like the photos of how they look. Sort of a bunch of daisies all clustered on a torch?  I can see that in my garden.

Water Iris

Water iris - maybe I will experiment

This one sounds like an experiment. It says it grows in wet soil but is not tolerant of this wetness over the winter months, causing the rhizomes to rot. ( Ref: http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=a641 )  So I would need to test it out in my area to see if it does rot over the winter.  That’s great with me. I may find some to try this out. It would be worth the trouble if I really liked how the plant looks.

Will I have a Problem with Cattails?

Along the natural drainage runoff at the edge of the yard is a small cluster of cattails growing. I hear they spread vigorously, but there doesn’t see to be any growing in my moist area of the yard ( well, maybe it will be mine soon).  I don’t think I want to get these started growing in my garden, so I hope that can be avoided.

It will be fun to get acquainted with a new neighbor who gardens. Keeping my fingers crossed!

UPDATE:  No, we didn’t get this house either. It went pending shortly after I wrote this while we were still researching the drainage problems. It was not meant to be. Keep on searching.

5 Comments

  1. Hello, Roses love clay soil because of the lack of quick drainage, clay soil can be rich in certain minerals that sandy soils are not and you don’t have to water as often since the soil particles are very small and tend to clump together keeping them moist.
    Thanks!

  2. Very well written article and I don’t how can you forget to mention Rose. Roses love clay soil because of the lack of quick drainage, clay soil can be rich in certain minerals that sandy soils are not and you don’t have to water as often since the soil particles are very small and tend to clump together keeping them moist. Thanks!!

    1. I have hardly grown roses at all. Maybe I will try them and see what I can do. Clay soil is all over this part of Ohio, so I probably will end up with a garden of clay soil.

  3. Vicki Zwiebel says:

    Oh my, What fun…start from scratch! Best of luck in your new adventure!

Leave a Reply to Vicki Zwiebel Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.