What's the soil like?
Is it on a slope?
Need more info.
I consider over spray a leak, unless the over spray is going into a pond surrounding the fountain and the water source is the pond.
Mike

i dont understand if you mean the leaves stay damp from spray ... which would mean to avoid things that get powdery mildew ... like lilac ... of which i presume you arent planting one of those near a small fountain ... and monarda comes to mind also ...

or whether you mean the soil will have the potential to be inundated???

hosta would love that spot .... but i dont know about the z9 thing.. there is a lady in the hosta forum.. babka.. who grows hosta.. wildly successfully in CA ... if interested.. you might want to ask this over there ...

please clarify the above.. but also.. why cant you adjust the flow.. to reduce the water loss????

ken

The fountain is meant to splash, that's the style of it. You can try to dial back the flow of the pump but you can't prevent the splashing. It's on flat leveled surface. I'll be placing pots around it and I guess I'll be using a combination of pumice and regular potting soil to help with drainage.

In addition to the mildew that ken mentioned, one problem I have observed is the buildup of minerals from constant splashing and evaporation on the foliage to a point that leaves die. Whatever you end up planting - occasionally, at the end of the day when the foliage is still misty, you might rinse it off with a regular flow of water to reduce the buildup.
hortster

any chance at a pic...

whats in the bottom of the fountain.. to create the splash ...

absolutely no adjustments available.. other than flow rate ...???

wont you be filling it up for lost water all the time???

ken

there is one hosta.. which literally grows on rock face on the edge of real water falls..

most of us cant grow it for lack of moisture ...

ken