You could have an orangutan monkey to liven up the space. These suggestions are OK.

muddydogs....thanks for your thoughts. I am sure my kids would like your suggestion!

anything in the adiantum family looks perfectly at home near water. A. venustum is evergreen and spreads nicely. the native A pedatum can nicely arc over a water feature and look amazing.

Is the surrounding soil wet from splash or overflow?

Do you have room to put any plants in the stream itself?

the surrounding soil is not wet from splash.

as far as room in the stream for plants, I really don't think so...and it's pondless so at the bottom of the stream is not an option.

I had a Japanese Maple drooping over a waterfall. I thought it was lovely.

Since the surrounding soil isn't wet (one of my water features is wet, why I asked) you can plant anything you want to.

I have a Japanese maple drooping over my fish pond but it does drop it's leaves into the pond...I have azaleas, dwarf rhodies, nandina, dwarf mondo grass, Irish and Scotch "moss" heaths and heathers, dwarf conifers, ornamental grasses around my ponds. Some get more sun than others. I used blue star creeper (Pratia) to soften the rocks but it is far too aggressive to be used with dwarf conifers and heathers it is smothering them. (I have multiple ponds/water features in my yard)

buyorsell888....can you post some pics? I am also looking at some dwarf conifers, nandina, moss and heathers as options.

I did plant a japanese maple yesterday, tried to plant back far enough to ge the effect without leaves dropping in the water....we'll see! I would love some blue conifers for some height...currently looking for picea pungens blue totem but can't seem to locate any locally. If I can't find any I will probably just do skyrocket junipers and look for something in the brighter blues in a dwarf conifer. any recommendations?

as far as ground covers go, is any type of moss good, or how about thyme? I am not big on ground covers anywhere else in my landscape so I am not very familiar with them.

And how about Heather recommendations? I only have one heather, Wickwar Flame I believe, and I just got it....so not sure how it will look throughout the year.

Thanks!

Here's a pic...give me any thoughts / advice on plantings and placement. Please.

Wow, that is gorgeous.

You could tuck watercress and parrot's feather among the rocks with roots in the water and they'll grow happily with no pots or soil.

I don't seem to have very good photos of my pond side plantings. At least I don't seem to have many uploaded to Photobucket.

Here are some:

wow. THATS a water feature!

nice start with the japanese maple. good placement for a focal point.

i wouldn't try for anything much taller than a your tree there. a big blue conifer might be too much structure for my taste. will detract from the structure of the rocks.

since your feature is in the back of the property, and has nice LARGE rocks, if you keep with smaller plants the feature will look BIGGER.

as for conifers, a ropey dwarf cryptomeria variety would look cool there. having trouble remembering names right now, but there are a few that look like mini-monkeypuzzle trees.

buyorsell....I love your ponds, love how you did the three all together. Thanks for posting the pics! I really like the look of a pond, I just didn't want the maintenance, besides I have kids and I didn't want that worry either. What is the flowering groundcover you have on the top pic? I was thinking on doing some moss and/or woolly thyme ground covers, but not sure yet.

eeldip....thank you! I decided not to do a bigger tree like you said. I just hope my arborvitae's grow fast as I don't love looking at my neighbor's blue house! (this view is right out of my living room window, off of my patio). I am going to put in a couple splashes of blue with a smaller conifer.

Should I just do ground covers in the front of the basin...or should I do something very low growing? My thoughts were maybe a couple Midnight Wine Weigela in the middle with some ground covers on either side. I am going to put a piece of flagstone in front of the rocks in the front as I am sure my kids will sit on them, so no plantings there.

thanks for your help!

Here's a pic of my pond area taken a few years ago. I've been slowly trying to add darker foliage with the 'Royal Purple' in the upper corner and various things like lysimachia 'Firecracker' and both colors of 'Tropicana' canna. I also really like the variegation of cornus 'Elegantissima' which I have right by my pond bench.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:32176}}

The flowering groundcover is dark blue star creeper (Pratia) it is smothering my heathers and dwarf conifers but looks great softening the rocks and blooms a long time.

I would put ground cover in front of the basin, people will naturally want to get close.

blue star juniper is a cheap, slow growing bright blue conifer.

Boxofrox, that is gorgeous!!!

Has anyone mentioned the black grass Ophiopogon planiscapus Nigrescens, This would look nice against anything golden.

I have it around my little ponds growing out of the chartreuse Sagina subulata 'Aurea'. Looks great and grows slowly.

I could see a nice espaliered 'Mojave' firethorn to the left of the maple to kind of play peek a boo with the fence and maybe some 'Cameo' flowering quince to the right. I grow both on the cedar fence above my pond and it adds a little character. You get lovely white bloom in spring and gorgeous orange berries in fall and winter from the firethorn and the quince is stunning in bloom. You could underplant the firethorn with 'Lemon Tip' honeysuckle or 'Kaleidascope' abelia for contrast and maybe even place one of the smaller barbaries to play off the lime and the green. I could also see some escallonia to hide the retaining wall.

Because I have so much rock for structural reasons, I tried getting creative to mute some of it and interupt the manmade lines both inside and outside of the streambeds and pond. I use floating planters with 'Chamelions' and love the effect. The foliage is very colorful and kept in pots the invasiveness is negated. You could tuck them in pots in your rocks. Two other plants I love near any pond are cardinal flowers and agastache.

Just a few more points to "pond-er"......

Mine is now about 5 years old and I'm still tweaking. The great thing about most plants is if they begin to mature and throw the site out of balance, you can always move them :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1070004}}