Random musings and questions in no particular order�..

Bought some rain lilly � beautiful plant, related to amaryllis apparently. Thought how lovely to have these as edging around my pond. Now reading that it is extremely TOXIC � eating any part of it can kill you!!! Does that mean it is toxic to fish??? It is sold as a pond plant online but NOWHERE does it mention toxicity to fish. Still� I would not want to find out the hard way. And if it can kill a dog who eats any part of it doesn�t it stand to reason that toxins leaching out or a small nibble at some roots would kill your fish??

(BTW, this may be a coincidence but when I came home the other day I found one of my fish up in the shallow shelf right next to where this toxic plant was � lying there looking up at me - poor guy, he seemed to be in really bad shape. I also had the pond covered with a tarp for much of the day because of tree trimming in the yard � so oxygen depletion may have affected him although the other fish didn�t seem incapacitated. Would a tarp over part of pond cause that drastic a depletion of oxygen? Dang...all fish seem OK now but still... )

Anyway, so much for rain lily. Next I thought maybe watercress would make a nice pond edger - and if it�s aggressive, so much the better, so we can harvest it for dinner �. Or so I thought! The thing is, it will be grown in water treated with stuff like dechlorinator that says things on the label like "for ornamental fish only! don�t use this on fish you will eat! Causes cancer in the state of California" (Well being in Wisconsin I should be OK then LOL.) Shall I I assume that plants also absorb the chemicals and be harmful to eat?

And finally - what�s up with the hornwort? Seems to be growing OK then suddenly disintegrates into little pieces and makes a big mess. Same with the water hyacinth? Roots have begun disintegrating in a major way, tinging the water completely black! Is that normal, are they supposed to shed like that or does it indicate some problem with my water ?