Tradescantia, "Sweet Kate"

what a beautiful tradescantia. Never seen one with such beautiful contrast between leaf and flower colour before....and what a lovely blue!

I love this too... it's a real knockout. The flowers are huge and the yellowness of the foliage increases with the amount of light it receives.

Is your pond quite large Lori, it looks quite clear, not too much algae......?

you can just see two of my goldies in the upper right corner... they keep the pond ecology balanced. They eat insect eggs and larvae and algae...and add their bit to the fertilization of the pond plants... my pond is like a reservoir...it is about 3 ft deep at the centre. I have a recirculating pump and a passive filter system. nothing fancy but with the pump and the fish and the plants there is a balance. I keep track of the water level, and top it up if it's very hot and there's a lot of evaporation...otherwise it is nature's game. Algae rarely gets out of hand (unless I overfeed) but if it does I clean the filter pad a couple of times in a day...and usually within 48 hours the balance is returned... even better if we get rain. I have a blog about the evolution of my water features called Pond Slogging...'cause it was really a mess for a while. lol.

Thanks very much. That's really helpful. I think part of my problem was pond too small and soil too rich! I also filled it from a hose which I now know is a bad move. This winter I am going to dig a pond for here, so that is helpful Lori. I will remember to look at your blog when the time comes!

Stunning tradescantia!