Today is a day that word begins spreading across the world that Purple and Blue hardy waterlilies are something that people will indeed be able to grow in their water gardens.
A few years ago Pairat Songpanich hybrized what is the worlds first hardy (inter-sub-genetic) waterlily with a blue (lavendar) hue. The good news was that one existed the bad, the plant has produced no natural offspring since 2007.
A few weeks ago in July hybridizer Mike Giles who has studied waterlily genetics and history for the better part of a decade produced a wonderful hardy purple….very purple. UPDATE 8-17-2010: Named “Purple Satin”
WHO IS MIKE GILES?
That was going to be a blog post of mine for a few months. My buddy Tim in Houston Texas has been sharing Mikes hardy hybrids with me for most of this year. Until the news of a successful purple I thought Mike would be going into the history books for creating some wild and fascinating waterlilies based on the pads. I saw much of Mikes new work when visiting San Angelo Texas where over a dozen new varieties are on display this year. The lilypads are beyond fancy in my opinion. The flowers are all very pretty but the pads blew me away.
As I write this tonight, if you know anything about waterlilies I am not going to be able to impress you with all my photos and videos of the pads as you want to see the worlds first hardy purple tropical. Tim Davis has waited a long Time to introduce Mike Giles to the world and Mike’s story will be well known and is fascinating as you may soon learn.
So do me a favor and head over to my buddy Tim’s Website as he introduces you to Mike and this yet to be named purple Hardy waterlily.
Visit the InternationalWaterlilyCollection.com to view this new lily
I will have Mike’s videos and photos of the new regular hardy waterlilies on here soon and please visit his work this late summer of fall if you can at the International Waterlily Collection in San Angelo Texas.
-Zac
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