Each week we run deals on plants for £1.99. They might be big, they might be small but one thing for sure, they’re always a great deal. Today we’ve got a deal on the lovely foreground plant called Pogostemon
This lovely plant needs brighter light to flourish and grows up to 10cm so great therefore ideal for nano tanks or smaller aquariums. You can, of course, grow it in larger tanks – you just need more of them 😉 Although it appreciates the addition of pressurised CO2 in the aquarium, it’s not a must – without it, growth is just a bit slower.
If you’d like to be the first in the line for these types of deals, maybe subscribe to my newsletters here http://eepurl.com/Aw_Nb.

You can find a link to the foreground plant Pogostemon
If you’re outside the UK and mainland Europe, we can’t get the plants to you fast enough.
If you’d like lots of detail on this plant, have a look at this link from the Tropica website
By: Ole Pedersen
The full scientific name is Pogostemon helferi (Hook. f.) Press and from this it follows that it is closely related to another popular aquarium plant, Pogostemon stellatus. The meaning of the genus name is “bearded stamens” from “pogo” (bearded) and “stemon” (stamen) but as yet there is no English common name for Pogostemon helferi. Two Thai aquarist, Nonn Panitvong and Arthit Prasartkul, recovered the plant on the boarder between Thailand and Myanmar and in Thailand the plant is called “dao noi” which means little star. Here, the plant is found in between the other amphibious vegetation along creeks and small rivers where it is found submerged during the wet season and emerged during the dry. The soil in this part of Thailand is often iron rich clay with a reasonable amount of calcium carbonate and this makes it ideal as an aquarium plant.
Pogostemon helferi is not easily confused with other aquarium plants because of the
At Tropica, we cultivate Pogostemon helferi in emergent cultures which bring along advantages not only for Tropica but also for the aquarist. The emergent plants are always free from algae but in addition, they also acclimate much easier to the water in the individual tanks found among different aquarists. The reason is likely that in nature, these plants experience large natural fluctuations in water quality upon the start of the wet season when ions in different amounts are washed out from the catchment area. This phenomenon probably makes the plant more adaptive to submergence in different types of waters also in our tanks. When planting Pogostemon helferi into the aquarium, the cluster of plantlets should be divided into 4-5 blocks which are then planted into the substrate with a distance of 3-5 cm. In this way, a homogenous carpet is rapidly formed. Remember to remove loose leaves or leaves which are already senescent together with big lumps of roots. This tissue will soon die anyway and start to decay, and this will slow down the establishment of the new plants. Pogostemon helferi looks best if it is planted in small groups or even in larger groups in the foreground.
Pogostemon helferi is not particularly light demanding, but the more light we provide, the more compact the growth form, and the compact form
Pogostemon helferi is among the easiest foreground plant we have because it is not as light demanding as most other foreground plants; at low light, the individual stems simply grow a bit longer and the plant appears less compact. Try Pogostemon helferi together with other foreground plants such as Glossostigma or Hemianthus to create new and exciting color contrast in the aquarium.
Pogostemon helferi is relatively new in our hobby and thus, there is not much information available as yet. However, we recommend consulting the articles listed below if you want to learn more about this exiting plant.