Pest battle with Cattail — and how I won

I had a serious problem with overrunning the pond surface in productive warm summers on my Cattail earlier this year. Caught it late and had to work hard to bring the plant back. The experience was frustrating but educational.

Now that it's healthy again I can fully appreciate cooling visual effect and microclimate benefit in summer, which is remarkable. I've repositioned it in an indoor water feature with appropriate species and improved my attention to dividing overcrowded plants every two or three years in spring. peak flowering period in midsummer was the proof that the plant had fully recovered — genuinely beautiful. Moral of the story: inspect regularly and catch problems early.