Many Florida counties promote and even require aquascaping of necessary man-made retention ponds.

Aquascaping may be used in a variety of settings, such as in projects to beautify natural and man-made lakes and water retention ponds, especially in urban areas. The aquascaped shoreline of Lake Butler (left picture) enhances the value of lakeside homesites of central Florida; the aquascaped retention pond in a shopping center in Tampa (right picture) provides wildlife habitat and eye-candy in a high-traffic urban setting.

Retention and stormwater management ponds are a permanent fixture on much of Florida's landscape. Without them, Florida would not be able to support its growing population safely or efficiently.

Many areas of Florida that are flood-prone are also paved with asphalt or covered in concrete, thus preventing rainwater from absorbing into the ground to replenish our aquifers. After a heavy rain, retention ponds collect excess water as it runs off of the paved areas. Another function of retention ponds is to catch and trap pollutants, preventing their runoff into natural waterbodies.

Runoff water gathers oil, gas, pesticides, heavy metals, fertilizers, bacteria, and nutrients as it flows over roadways and parking lots. These pollutants could cause serious harm if they flowed directly into waterbodies without any filtration or decomposition.

Instead of settling for generic, uninspiring retention ponds surrounded by chain-link fencing, aquascaping with Florida's native aquatic plants offers a glimmer of beauty that stands out against the gray and black of roads, parking lots and urban development.

Aquascaping opportunity wasted	Retention ponds don't have to be ugly

While the main goal of aquascaping retention ponds is to beautify the constructed pond and its shoreline and to hide the runoff areas, aquascaping also aids in pollutant filtration, controls erosion of the pond banks, attracts wildlife and increases much-needed wildlife habitat in urban settings, and helps control invasive non-native plants.

Even though most retention ponds cannot be used for recreational purposes, aquascaping allows these wet places to contribute to the aesthetic value of their surrounding areas. A lush pondscape breaks up the seemingly endless view of concrete and asphalt in highly developed areas.

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As in gardening and landscaping, aquascaping must be maintained. When aquascaped waters are left untended, non-native invasive plants will take over. In this aquascaped waterway, water hyacinth plants, brown with decay, have been treated with herbicides to make room for the native plantings.

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However aquascapers tend to use the same very few types of plants in most of their designs, and don't branch out to discover what other plants are good-looking, suitable and available.

Too many retention ponds are aquascaped using just a very few species, such as pickerel weed (Pontederia cordata); blue flag (Iris species); the orange canna hybrids (Canna flaccida) and duck potato (Sagittaria lancifolia). While these native plants certainly carry out their intended function as decoration, their overuse causes many aquascapes to have the same uniform look.

Utilizing a variety of plants would offer more to wildlife in the way of food and shelter, would provide better defense against invasive plants, and would appear to be more natural-looking.

Aquatic nurseries offer a greater variety these days - find plants that appeal to you and specify them in your aquascape plan.

Have a look at Florida's native aquatic plants and see just how creative you can get at designing your own aquascape. This page includes pictures of aquatic and wetland plants that you might consider (scroll down to click on the grasses, sedges, rushes, floating-leaved, submersed and emersed plants). Choose native plants you feel would look good in your aquascaping project (don't forget the small ones!) and call the nurseries and vendors to order them.

Find nurseries and vendors of native Florida aquatic plants on another page of this web site.

Plants for Freshwater Shores, Streams and Ponds, a Pinellas County Extension publication, includes basic planting requirements for a nice selection of Florida native aquatic plants which may be used in aquascaping.

An Introduction to Aquascaping is a basic flyer about aquascaping from the University of Florida Extension Service.

Creating Wildlife Habitat with Native Florida Freshwater Plants, an EDIS publication that provides guidance on choosing the right types of native freshwater plants, plants you should avoid, planting techniques, and maintenance tips.