These hardy perennials are originally from Japan and are great ground covers for the margins of your water garden. Houttuynia cordata has bluish-green, heart-shaped leaves edged with red on red stems. Small flowers, consisting of cone-shaped inflorescences surrounded by white, petal-like bracts, are produced from the tips of the stems, in early summer. This plant grows 6 to 12 inches high and is a vigorous grower. If care is not taken, it can become a nuisance near a natural pond or stream. A variety of Houttuynia cordata, named Variegata, will produce bluish-green, heart-shaped leaves mottled with cream and red on red stems, when they are grown in sunny locations. It also produces cone-shaped, white flowers. This plant only grows up to 6 inches in height. There is also a double-flowered variety named Plena. It is supposedly not as aggressive a grower as its parent.

You can pot them in 1-gallon containers and place under no deeper than 1 or 2 inches of water. The variety Variegata can be grown in moist soil to 1 or 2 inches of water.

Stem pieces of these plants may be rooted in a moist bed of sand or they may be divided in the spring.

Houttuynia cordata & var. plena, variegata.