Water in the big pond was 60F on the mark this morning at 9am. When do the hyacinths STOP blooming? I noticed this morning another one is just starting. And our tall purple spikey plant (I'm so professional. lol ) has 2 more flower spikes going to start soon too. I also noticed one of my other floaters has a whole new batch of leaves. The only one that seems to be pooping out is the hardy lily. Can anyone in or around Zone 5 give me any kind of clue as to when the plants go dormant? So I can start pulling/trimming them?

I deadhead all summer as leaves on all plants yellow. You just do alot more as fall approches. I am in the pond about every 3 weeks and remove any leaf that isn't perfect.

hey Robyn; why does it say I am not regestered now. :(

I don't know why it says you're not registered. Did you log in? At the upper left, it should say logged in as "your name" if you are.

My water hyacinth never bloomed this year and are dying off and browning for some reason. Normally, this time of year, they cover all free space in the pond. I live in Zone 6/7 and start throwing them away in late September but they don't die back in earnest until the first real frost hits them. As soon as a freeze comes through, they'll rot fast so get in and remove them. I think it's less stressful to the pond to start removing them earlier even though they're alive. In early September, I normally start removing a few buckets full each week but not this year since they're doing poorly. So, the fish can adjust to more and more open water and less hyacinth filtration as well. If I removed them all in one day, it would be a lot of work and shocking to the pond I would think.

The tall spikey plant if really tall is probably hardy canna.

Normally, even in summer, leaves turn yellow and die now and again so even if the plants aren't dying back a lot, there is probably some pruning that you can do now. Be sure to remove the yellow and brown waterlily leaves. The hardy lilies will be slowing down but the tropical liiles often grow fastest now until the frost hits.

Since I don't live in Zone 5, I can't give you an exact time to do things. Here, I start cutting marginals in late September, and I cut back any remaining marginals all the way in November so it is probably October there for you to remove anything that's left (normally after a few hard frosts).

I'm in Northern Iowa zone 5. Here's what my pond is doing.

I can tell fall is on our heels, but most of my plants are still doing well. Lettuce is still producing at such a rate I'm having to throw excess away daily. Pond water temps are running in the high 60's. 5 hardy lilies, although still blooming, have slowed from 13-14 flowers to 2-3, and not many new leaves. Lotus is still pushing up new leaves, but slow, and I'm still waiting for it's annual flower. I'm hoping soon as the wild lotus on the Mississippi river the are pushing flowers now. 2 clumps of Shaggy bark birch trees, one of my first indicators of fall, less than 10 leaves have turned yellow and fallen at this point, they're just starting.