Are you looking for simple ideas to elevate your garden in spring, summer, and fall? With a little creativity, you can highlight garden elements you already possess. By combining flower blooms and foliage from your garden with a watertight container, you can create a floating flower garden. Think birdbaths, a fountain, or a tall terracotta urn. Then select a palette of colors and interesting textures that are complementary and create a garden feature that is uniquely yours. Add an unexpected punch of color to your woodland garden, front porch, or meandering pathway. Whether you are expecting friends and family for a garden soirée or just relaxing on your patio, you can enjoy a zen moment using greenery and blooms from your patch of paradise.
In early spring, hellebore blossoms look lovely floating in a birdbath outdoors. This menagerie includes several varieties, colors, and forms. Most hellebore flowers have a nodding habit, which makes it difficult to see the intricacy of the blooms. By floating the flowers in water, you can enjoy all the details up close. Hellebores are easy to grow in part shade and will tolerate dryish soil once they are established. One of the first perennials to flower in the spring, their leaves are evergreen and deer resistant.
Both Seneca Greenhouse in West Seneca (senecagreenhouse.com) and Wayside Garden Center in Macedon (waysidegardencenter.com) offer a large selection of annuals and perennials, including hellebores. Both nurseries are open year-round with greenhouses packed with houseplants.
For all those readers passionate about native growing early blooming hepaticas, snip the perfect mix of colors, shapes and bloom sizes for a captivating water garden. Both sharp-lobed hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba) and round-lobed hepatica (Hepatica Americana) are natives in several Western New York counties.
Buy local from Amanda’s Native Garden (amandasnativeplants.com) in Dansville. Co-owners Ellen Folts and daughter Amanda Stolte specialize in woodland native perennials propagated in-house from seed, division, cuttings, and spores. According to Folts, “gardeners can pick up hepaticas at the nursery beginning when we open in April. We also ship bare-root hepaticas from April through mid-May and from September through to the end of October.”
Pansies and hellebores sparkle in an antique pressed glass dish. Experience small garden moments by bringing a touch of spring indoors with this colorful composition.
For a large selection of pansies and violas, visit Mischler’s Florist and Greenhouse (mischlersflorist.com) in Williamsville. The garden center is open from April through November, with a perennial sale every year in April.
Van Putte Gardens (vanputte.com) in Greece sells pansies and violas in flats, six packs, and larger decorative containers. Van Putte offers a ten percent discount to seniors every Wednesday and post specials on the website.
A brunnera leaf acts as a mini surfboard on the water to support a tender clematis bloom. The clematis seems to hold up longer especially if a firm leaf is placed under it. Quick and simple, yet elegant!
Visit Sara’s Garden Center in Brockport (sarasgardencenter.com) for native plants, hard-to-find perennials, and the latest new plant varieties. According to Kathleen Kepler, “We grow at least thirty varieties of clematis and stock a good selection of containers, bird baths, troughs, and bowls that are watertight.”
Traditional pond plants like water lettuce and water hyacinths work well in deep containers and birdbaths. They multiply quickly when the outdoor temperature rises. By mid-summer you will have extra plants to share with gardening friends. Both water lettuce and water hyacinths have long root systems that filter the water and fight algae by soaking up the nutrients algae feed on.
At Bergen Water Garden & Nursery (bergenwatergardens.com) in Churchville you will find a plethora of unusual plants for your floating garden including Chinese micro lotus and miniature water lilies. Owner Larry Nau says, “The best choice for a water lily is Nymphaea x helvola.” It is a miniature lily prized for its petite, lemon-yellow, star shaped flowers and mottled maroon-green lily pads. It spreads 1 to 2 feet, so it is perfect for a patio pot, water feature, or other confined space. It thrives in shallow water (minimum of 4 inches deep), is a prolific bloomer in full sun, and is winter hardy in USDA zones 3 to 11. Nau says that “for smaller containers I often suggest water poppies (Hydrocleys nymphoides) or water snowflakes (Nymphoides indica), which send out floating runners with plantlets at the nodes and produce white flowers.” Nau also sells red ludwigia (Ludwigia repens), rotala (Rotala rotundifolia) and creeping jenny (Lysimachia nummularia). “Do not overlook some basic aquarium plants, says Nau. “Most will grow emergent [above the water] and bear small flowers.”
In East Aurora, visit Masterson’s Garden Center (mastersons.net) for floating aquatic plants like water lettuce, water hyacinths, salvinia, azolla, and duckweed. Marginal aquatic plants like water iris, rush, cattails, arrowhead, and marsh marigold work for deeper water gardens.
The Artful Gardener (theartfulgardenerny.com) in Rochester, is owned by Jean Westcott, a horticulturalist and professional landscape designer. She has been sharing her knowledge with gardeners for forty years. At her shop near Highland Park, Westcott curates frost-proof pottery, statuary, fountains, sculpture, and birdbaths. The European bowls on display are water-tight and nearly thirty inches wide. They are made from polyethylene, designed to give the appearance of grey stone, but are extremely lightweight. The bowls are 100 percent recyclable.
Vibrant zinnias, orange nasturtiums, deep purple salvias and jewel-toned dahlias are highlighted by the tiny lilac blooms of ageratum. This breathtaking combination greeted me at Chanticleer, a pleasure garden in Wayne, Pennsylvania, last October.
Weeks Nursery and Greenhouse (weeksnursery.com) in Clarence, is known for classic favorites, as well as new introductions of bold, blooming annuals. All plants grown at Weeks, including perennials, annuals, vegetables, and herbs are selected for strong growth and reliable performance in upstate gardens.
Wayside Garden Center (waysidegardencenter.com) in Macedon offers a large selection of concrete, resin and ceramic fountains and birdbaths, ideal for your floating flower garden. Take time to check out its hydrangea collection of more than 100 different varieties.
At Chanticleer, a large terracotta bowl is packed with yellow strawflowers, red zinnias, purple ageratum, red-orange marigolds, white cosmos, lavender asters, and the tubular orange flowers of hyssops.
Fenton’s Bloom & Basket (formerly Pudgie’s Lawn & Garden Center) in Batavia, is a year-round greenhouse, garden supply store, and produce market. There are houseplants along with outdoor seasonal favorites including annuals, perennials, herbs, vegetables, shrubs, and trees.
A footed stone urn displays a water garden of simple purple asters floating petal to petal. A copper dish of chestnuts and seed pods completes this charming fall vignette at the 425-acre Scott Arboretum & Garden at Swarthmore College just outside Philadelphia.
Lavocats’s Family Greenhouse and Nursery (lavocatsnursery.com) in East Amherst, NY sells unique houseplants, annuals and perennials in their 19,000 square foot state-of-the-art garden center. Lavocat’s offers an impressive array of pots from 2 to 20 inches in a spectrum of colors and a variety of textures. The traditional, porous terra cotta, usually orange in color, is also available in both white and gray at Lavocat’s.
Using just three annuals of various colors—dahlias, zinnias, and marigolds—this container transitions from hot to pastel hues. The imaginative, contemporary design was displayed at Chanticleer within the forty-eight-acre historic Rosengarten Estate.
Henry’s Garden in Eden (henrysgardens.com) grows several varieties of zinnias perfect for floating. Barbara Henry says, “if you don’t want to cut flowers from your own garden, we host a seasonal U-pick usually the last two weeks in July until mid-September. Here, you can cut a rainbow of dazzling blooms to float in one of our distinctive birdbaths!”
Floating flower gardens have been around for years, adding beauty to gardens in unexpected spaces. Put your own spin on aquatic gardening by choosing the perfect vessel, selecting unusual plant material, or just picking a favorite blossom from your own garden. Experience a calm and uplifting sensation, while relaxing near your new creative water feature.
Colleen O’Neill Nice is a horticulturalist who is passionate about plant propagation and enjoys nurturing her garden in Clarence, New York.
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2026 issue of Upstate Gardeners’ Journal.
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