Welcome to Pondforum. We've been lucky this year at Pondforum because our favorite season—spring—has lasted twice as long as usual. We enjoyed a month of it in April in Brooklyn, and another month of it in May after we moved our offices to Hanover, NH. Our company pond has been completely established now, and we have a few tips to share with you.

Before getting to that, however, we want to thank our many customers and visitors for a great spring. Pondforum.com is a new company, still the only one of its kind, and we have had a profitable first spring—no small feat these days in the dot com world. We are also one of the most visited water gardening sites on the web. Thanks to your patronage and interest, you may expect great things from us next spring and thereafter as we begin to really grow.

It is also wonderful to hear from so many of you about your pond trials and triumphs. We hope that this continues, and also that our visitors will use the Interactive Pond as well. Our message boards are a forum for our visitors to interact with each other, we don't contribute to them ourselves, and we only edit messages that are self-promotional, as all board moderators do. The combined knowledge and experience of the thousands of visitors to Pondforum far exceeds our expertise and experience, so we hope you'll take advantage of it!

Last fall, as we were preparing for our move to New Hampshire, we had to remove the old pond that was on the Hanover property in order to construct the new one. I felt terrible draining it and pulling out all the muck because I knew how many tiny life forms we were killing, not to mention the displacing of our frogs. But I was delighted to see nature coming back after we put in the new pond this year. Water striders have appeared from nowhere, frogs came back to spawn, and our crop of duckweed is multiplying fast.

What I am most excited to report, however, is our new pond plant obsession: primula. We aren't selling any yet, and they are somewhat rare, so finding a grower to suit our needs will be a challenge, but we hope to be offering them next season. For those of you who do not already know primula, or primroses, they are a beautiful, moisture-loving plant that sends up tall shoots of flowers from a bed of leaves that grows close to the ground. They will grow into Zone 4, some into 3, and like part shade.

There are many varieties. The most common and hardy is primula japonica, but we were lucky to find some other, more precious varieties this year. Among them are primula kisuana, primula sieboldi and primula pubescens. We planted them in the boggy areas around the pond, and we expect them to flourish there and to seed this summer for next year. These delightful plants have a romantic history and a special place in the hearts of many English people who are familiar with old tales and drawings of hedgehogs scampering among the primula growing in the wet areas alongside woodland streams. We will report on the progress of Pondforum's, and hope to have them for sale soon. If you think you might be interested in buying primula, send us a quick, affirmative email (to sellprimula@pondforum.com) so that we can measure interest.

Good luck with your lily ponds this summer, or good luck getting started, and remember to check in with us for all your mechanical and plant pond needs.

Thanks again for making Pondforum a success, and happy water gardening!

All the best,

Rob Sheldon, Principal Manager, Pondforum.com