Originally a seedling of N. ‘Attraction’, from Perry Slocum, Perry sold about 100 seedlings to Brad McLane around the year 2000. Brad in turn sold many of the seedlings to Randy during a time there was a slight shortage of Attraction. According to Randy this is when he grew out and found N. ‘Hidden Violet’. I was anxious to try one of these nifty red hardy lilies. The name Hidden Violet refers to the sheen on the plant when it is held up to the light you see a sheen of violet around the edge of the flowers.

The petal count is low but the unique star flower is interesting. After growing these plants for the past few summers and also seeing it on display in San Angelo I would call this a not so good bloomer. I usually had one bloom per day this summer in multiple pots with multiple crowns. Also for some reason the rhizomes do not seem to enjoy being transplanted like other hardy lilies. I am not sure this is an excellent choice for a market lily however it is unique and something new and fun I enjoyed trying the past few years.

Randy McDonald is an incredible waterlily Hybridizer from California and has an extensive hybrid stock we will dive into soon, many of which are interesting heavy blooming tropical plants.

Texas Dawn has been an incredible waterlily for nearly 30 years, the wonderful yellow flowers on this hardy lily are held high above the water and blooms in profusion. Hybridizers also enjoy working with the cultivar by Ken Landon. Here are some videos from Ken Landon, Drew Darby, and Tim Davis.

Ken Landon

Drew Darby

Tim Davis

Texas Dawn waterlilies are available for purchase here.

Here is just a peek at what Mike will be bringing to market in the next 2-3 years. Also our friends in Florida have followed in the footsteps of Pairat Songpanich and Mike Giles with more urple hardy waterlilies. Both the blue and purple hardy lilies have been slow too reproduce so they will probably become available 1 or 2 years more slowly than a normal hardy lily. Many of the pink and red lilies multiply faster and could be available sooner.

Mike also has some lilies with blooms nearly the size of a gallon container and in cool weather stay open 6 to 12 days.

More information coming here soon and more waterlilies coming to Pond Megastore.

We have Emily Grant Hutchings. One of George Prings most incredible night blooming waterlilies, this video though not narrated will stun you! Plant night bloomers only after water is well into the 70s constantly or you will put them to sleep for many weeks. They multiply easily so keeping some over the winter as tubers is no problem if you have watched our tuber storage videos from Ken Landon. Emily Grant Hutchings is pink with green pads, flowers open around dusk and stay open well into the next morning ot even noon if it is overcast.

Next, James Brydon is a red moderate to heavy blooming small to medium waterlily. The shape of the flowers is very pretty and this like most reds does well where summer temperatures are not too hot. If your average high in summer is above 92 degrees then red hardy waterlilies are to be avoided as they tend to turn black and get a cooked appearance after opening.

Finally we have Wood’s Blue Goddess, a favorite large blue waterlily created by Jack Wood in 1989. Flowers stand high above the water and the pads are green. The flowers are moderate to heavy depending on pot size and fertilizer.

Alexis waterlily, (below) blue waterlily at www.pondmegastore.com

This waterlily is currently for sale at http://www.pondmegastore.com

Beginning in 2012 PondMegastore.com will have exclusive sales rights to the first of Mike Giles hardy waterlilies hybrids. Myra, Sunfire, Fairy Skirt, Yellow Giant, and Hunneycup. In 2013 as long as production goes well we will then bring you the first Purple and Blue hardy waterlilies from Mike Giles.

More Soon….
Zac – water-garden-blog.com / http://www.PondMegastore.com

Let us know what you think – if you have questions – all these pond plants and waterlilies are available to buy (blooming size) at http://www.PondMegastore.com  

We should have new videos up and some big new features in the next 3-5 weeks. The biggest announcements in 4 years or more, some waterlilies we know you have never seen before. And that is how I will end this post with you wondering what is about to show up here.

Miami Rose:

“Miami Rose Growing Pool” waterlilies growing in the southern nursery. A full star shape with more than 50 petals when mature.

The foliage is uniquely mottled and is a vigorous bloomer. Miami Rose waterlily is truly one of the all time favorites and is very popular. For sale now at http://www.pondmegastore.com/

Clyde Ikins:

Peony shaped peach blossoms are held well above beautifully slightly mottled to green leaves with age. One of the most prolific blooming hardy lilies.

Other hardy prolific bloomers include Texas Dawn, Colorado, Perrys Baby Red, Helvola, Mangkala Ubol, Moondance, Laydekeri Fugens, Laydekeri Lilacia, Bernice Ikins, Joanne Pring, and more.

Clyde Ikins is available as a full grown adult blooming plant at http://www.PondMegastore.com

Crystal: Crystal is a very heavily blooming white waterlily.

“Crystal” waterlilies growing in the southern nursery. Crystal is a great white… waterlily – an excellent bloomer and will fit in most any size water garden or pond.

This waterlily has the added benefit of being viviparous, plantlets form on the pads.

This waterliy is readily available now and should be into the summer months at
http://www.pondmegastore.com/ for delivery to homes or garden centers.

seem more at http://www.PondMegastore.com 

Jennifer Rebecca is a very deep red nightblooming waterlily that can stay open very late each morning and will not wilt as other deep red waterlilies do in the summer heat. Ken used Trudy Slocum and red flare in multiple crosses to get this very tolerant and high performance night bloomer. If you ever want to try a red night blooming pond plant this is the one.

Night bloomers often begin blooming a couple weeks later in the summer than tropical day bloomers so give it a couple weeks to establish but the blooms will last until frost. They also tuber easily and can  be overwintered as tubers indoors!

Click the video to see the flowers and story of the Jennifer Rebecca waterlily by Ken Landon. This waterlily is for sale at Pond Megastore. 

1. Do you have the right size container?A two gallon container is pretty standard for medium water gardens but most lilies would like more space. Hardy lilies like a lot of horizontal room, consider a 12-20″ across if you don’t want to re-pot them every year, it does not need to be deep, something the size of a sturdy dishpan is great or a black colored kitty litter pan will last a couple years. A tropical waterlily can enjoy a pot 3-20 gallons in size. Lots of soil and fertilizer to boot.  Let us take a look at a few plants,

a new variety available for the first time in 2011 is Ken Landon’s ‘Rhapsody In White” (video below) Tim Davis sent me a tuber last summer after I fell in love with it at the International Waterlily Collection and is now probably my favorite star waterlily (flavovirens hybrid). It is very cold tolerant, possibly more so than some viviparous tropical waterlilies and can survive winters with ice on the pond. Chocolate pads surround a bouquet of wonderful white flowers standing high above the surface. Six blooms per day is not uncommon and plant 2 or more in a large container and you can have over a dozen flowers each morning.

Click on Video below to Play in HD

2. During the growing season waterlilies need fertilizer (and please plant them in SOIL). Though you can plant these plants in kitty litter trays don’t buy overpriced cat litter sold as aquatic plant medium (black kitty litter trays are preferable but after 2 weeks any dark color will be hidden by the pond film). Real soil, a heavy clay/topsoil or loam is perfect (potting soil is light and will float, avoid that as it is disaster).  If you add a good fertilizer like Ken Landon’s waterlily fertilizer or osmocote 180 day granulars (or both) to the soil you may not have to fertilze again all season. In the south where growing season are longer you can start with granular and add pond tabs the second half of the season if your fertilizer begins to run out.

In June 2010 I visited Nelson’s Water Garden in Texas where you can see how big lilypads and flowers actually can get when you feed them, this is Foxfire which had been growing in the pond for a couple months. Mike Swize puts his hand on a pad to show the relationship in size. Note I also grew fozfire and kept with less fertilzier in a smaller pot can keept the plant blooming just as much but stays about 1/3rd the size of this giant.

Click on Video below to Play in HD

3. Sunshine and warm weather. Waterlilies actively grow when water temps are in the mid to high 60s and like lots of direct sunlight. Full shade is not helpful for blooming even on shade tolerant plants. Planting your plants when its still early is not great either. Cold water can make tropical waterlilies go to sleep. Just because it was 82 degrees yesterday does not make it good planting weather if the bottom of your pond is 55. You want low temps to be nothing below 55 or so for 2 weeks straight before getting the plants in the pond from actively growing in waters elsewhere. You can plant dormant plants in water as cool as 45 just dont expect them to grow much until warmer weather.

Here is a look at hardy Helvola after a few week in the sun in a 20″ wide container. Each flower is only about 2″ across as this is a hardy dwarf waterlily.

Click on Video below to Play in HD

All three of the waterlilies shown are available at www.PondMegastore.com

The viviparous leaves (lilypads) develop new plantlets on many pads as they age. The roots and leaves can be easily seen where the stem and leaf come together as displayed in the HD video below.

visit Pond Megastore Pond Plants and Waterlily Nursery to Purchase online.

Pond Megastore and Champion Bay Aquatics will be adding Tanzanite and about 8 other waterlilies to a list close to 200 other water lilies this spring which are shipped wholesale grown / blooming size to Garden Centers and Landscapers all over the United States. 

Tanzanite was voted as the Best New Waterlily overall in 2009 and this is the first year of production. Developed by the McLane family at Florida Aquatic Nurseries in Florida they have worked quickly to build up supply and should have a good quantity at the beginning of the 2011 season. Tanzanite waterlily is the deepest purple on the market, very similar to the depth of  ’N. capensis var zanzibariensis forma purpurea’ in my opinion. 

Waterlily "Tanzanite" brand new, deep purple like no other on the market

This lily has slightly lower petal count than last years blockbuster hit “Ultra Violet“ which  I feel is still a superior waterlily though this is a close second in the purple waterlily category. From my two weeks this summer in San Angelo Texas (June & September) I did not notice the slight color change from day to day that Ultra Violet did seem to have. On hot sunny days I noticed Ultra Violet sometimes seemed to become almost a dark blue by the second or third day of full sun. If conditions were not completely sunny the flowers stayed purple all 3 days of each blossom. 

Ultra Violethas about 70 petals on adult flowers and Tanzanite about 50. The larger the plant the more petals so fertilizer and pot size is key to performance. The pads on the Ultra Violet changefrom red/green camouflage pattern to an almost full red during the summer which is a second benefit for a pond plant like no other. 

 Contact either customerservice@pondmegastore.com or info@championbayaquatics.com for prices lists and minimum order requirements. “Tanzanite“ is also now available direct to home purchase in the Annual Waterlilies listed on www.PondMegastore.com .

Below that I will post again the video with Tim Davis which has footage of the larger plants taken in September 2010 shortly prior to the Symposium and LilyFest. Ken’s video up first was taken in June 2010.

The first is N. Helvola. A wonderful dwarf variety. Dwarf waterlilies should not be planted too deep, they can do just fine from a few inches to close to two feet deep. The containers I could tell you can be smaller than the small, medium, and large lilies however remember that all hardy waterlilies have rhizomes and grow across the top of your container of soil so width is more important than depth.

Helvola is a yellow dwarf waterlily that can overwinter in most of the United States where the pond wont freeze to the depth of the root. Zones 4 and higher should be fine. If you have a small deicer for your fish they should survive in zone 3 as well. Helvola is an excellent bloomer with yellow blossoms on the waters surface sitting on top of the green lilypads. If fertilized well and kept in sun you should have many blooms every day of the summer until frost. See the video of a well planted and fertilized Helvola below. These three pond plants and over 70 more hardy waterlilies are available at Pond Megastore.

Andreana is a small burnt red to almost orange small waterlily. Slightly larger than dwarfs like helvola. Similar lighting and planting requirements. I should mention at dollar stores this spring I found small black trays for dish-washing which were of course shallow but wide and I thought, heck that’s twice the width of my pots and not as deep. Perfect since they were black though most any color would get discolored by algae film under water and would be covered by lilypads in a week or two. Also the trays have grips on the sides which make them easy to pull up or set down. Being so shallow the dirt wouldn’t make the trays heavy for any person of any age.

In the video below Andreana had begun to close a little as it was late afternoon and about 95 degrees in July so imagine them slightly more open. This plant is hardy and will survive well throughout the United States year after year. Fertilize until late summer and repot as needed when the growing container becomes overgrown to encourage more blooms.

Gloriosa is a nice compact to medium red waterlily with 3-5″ blooms. Developed back in 1896 it has been a proven winner for more than a century. Growing conditions are again similar, I would plant in at least a 2 gallon container or larger. If using fertilizer tablets add 3-5 per month for great blooms or a summer long granular fertilizer like Ken Landon fertilizer. Again this video was taken in late afternoon so they have begun to close for the day but this is a great example of how healthy happy waterlilies grow.

All hardy pond plants and waterlilies available at http://www.PondMegastore.com