Cattails prefer lots of sun, fertile soil, and consistent water.
With the right conditions, these fast-growing plants can reach up to 10 feet tall.
They have arhizomatous root systemand spread rapidly to form attractive thick clumps.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
The tall, dense clumps provide cover and nutrition for wildlife.
Keeping them well-controlled is vital to maintaining a lovely habitat around ponds and streams.
Light
Cattails needfull sunor partial shade to thrive.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
They can’t survive in full shade.
Soil
These plants benefit from rich, loamy soil that contains plenty oforganic matter.
They can, however, grow in most soil types.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
The soil should be kept wet, which is why they do best in areas where this happens naturally.
These plants thrive in standing water.
These hardy plants will come back reliably year after year.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
Fertilizer
Fertilizing cattails isn’t generally required or recommended.
New growth will appear in the spring.
Propagating Cattail Plants
Cattails can self-seed freely and spread through their rhizomes.
The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova
Young shoots can also be divided in the spring when they are between 5 and 10 inches tall.
Common Pests
Cattails don’t face the typical insects that many other plants do.
Instead, they are often eaten by creatures of much larger size, such as crayfish or muskrats.
Because cattails are so prolific, animal grazing shouldn’t be an issue.
How Long Do Cattail Plants Bloom?
What Do Cattail Flowers Look and Smell Like?
The spikes contain thousands of densely packed, tiny, petalless flowers that form a cylinder shape.
The flowers do not have a remarkable scent.
Male spikes start green and then turn yellow as pollen forms.
The pollen is released for about two weeks, and then the male spikes fall off.
The female spikes start green as they bloom in the spring and turn brown and fuzzy by the fall.
Deadheading Cattail Flowers
Cut off cattails seed heads in the fall to control cattails from spreading.
Therefore, it’s best to grow these tall beauties outdoors.
Some plants are just as attractive but don’t have the same invasive tendencies.
Consider anative willow,big bluestemgrass, andJoe Pye weedinstead.
Cattail (Typha) invasion in North American wetlands.U.S.
University of Minnesota Extension.
