Our lotus tubers ship with excellent growing tips. Only Lotus and water hawthorne are shipped as tubers. Our waterlilies and marginals arrive as adult sized plants usually with buds.

Lotus can be blooming in just 6 weeks from planting in warm weather. Plant shallow and wait to fertilize until you have a leaf standing above water. This is a tea-cup lotus in a 7 inch pot. The photos are taken during only 6 days from left to right. Medium and Large lotus need much larger containers.

Above is a larger 16 inch

Here you can see a tea cup lotus (front right), a small lotus (left), and a medium lotus (back). Each will need a little water each day in the summer as they will be heavy drinkers.  They will also love miracle grow once they have standing leaves.

This summer we will be documenting, Dasa Jin (large versicolor), Red Lantern (small / tea cup), Red Bowl, Loyalty Son, and Drunken Concubine out of Bath.

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 

The first is Colorful Brodcade,  is a beautiful oriental versicolor lotus with dancing petals that swirl around a bright green center. The first day flower has petals that are cream at the base to pink on the outer edge. The flower changes to a rich creamy white and the inner petals are arrayed around the center in a particularly fancy pattern. 

Colorful Broadcade

 This is a small “exquisite bowl / teacup” lotus and should be in a very shallow container in the pond or up on your sun porch or patio. An 8-12″ round shallow container deep enough not to dry out.

Second we have Dasa Jin, A larger variety with massive creamy white flowers with a jagged picotee of purple along the outer edge of the petals. The inner petals are tipped with green. Even the bud carries a splash of purple making this a favorite new Lotus. One of the most striking pond plants held tall in the water garden or patio container, plant in a large shallow container 16″ or more across.

Dasa jin (large versicolor)

Third a wonderful heavy bloomer, Li-Ya small Chinese lotus. Enjoy many multiple blooms on this pond plant! Li-Ya Chinese Elegance is a light lotus with floating outer petals that begin to drape after the flower fully opens. Opening very light pink to white, A well named Chinese Lotus! Plant in a shallow container 12″ or more across in water gardens, pond, or patio tub. Lower to a few inches below the water surface and only fertilize after standing leaves. Hardy to zone 3. 
 All three available at http://www.PondMegastore.com in the Lotus section.

Li-Ya Lotus

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

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 .

This makes interstate sales of plants more and more difficult. Most US growers of aquatics are quite responsible. There are a few who sell invasive species to states that have banned certain plants. There are also growers that are selling non-inspected plants and waterlilies from the asian-pacific region that may be bringing in pathogens, viral or fungal, as well as other pests attached to the plants. It is good to know exactly where your plants came from or are being grown. Many good honest growers can let you know where the plants are grown.

Shipping aquatic plants in soil to California should only be done with companies certified nematode free per law. Companies selling water hyacinths as “Blue Shellflower” are breaking the law sending the plants to CA, AZ, NM, AR, ID, TX, LA, SC, MS, the City of Chicago and should be reported to the USDA or state Agriculture Leader. If this practice can be stopped we can stop bans on all aquatics such as the proposed White List in Texas and now possibly NY and MD.

This week Los Angeles inspectors discovered a khapra beetle in dry rice (food) which is one of the 10 most dangerous non-established pests in the United States. Not a problem for aquatic garden industry person however we are are risk of introducing similar product when shipping in overseas and can quickly spread state to state before its ever noticed.

Most growers are honest and most inventory in US grown however it is always best to check especially when ordering online.

Some safe retail sellers include:

Online: PondMegastore.com, MarylandAquatics.com

Texas: Nelson’s Water Gardens

New York: Bergen Water Gardens

Virginia: Springdale Watergardens

Utah: Desert Water Gardens

Washington: Hughes Water Gardens

Canada: Burns Water Gardens

more can be found on the IWGS and WGI websites.  The IWGS website also lists all BANNED varieties/species by state updated often by Kelly Billing who keeps track for the industry.

Many canna such as the Longwood hybrids can be used as bog plants in the water garden. In fact they love the water and nutrients and bloom quite a bit. Plant only after the earth is warmed up probably in the upper 60s, the air temperature would have been in the 80s for 10 days or so a couple weeks after the last frost, you can also start them inside. If planting in water remember wet feet dry ankles, canna wont want to be submerged any deeper than the root.

Canna’s love sunlight and when planting in a pond make sure the container is big enough the plant wont blow over in a strong wind as some varieties get tall. I like to plant them in built in pockets along the edge of the ponds shelf.

There are dwarf canna that grow only to about 24″ or taller ones that can grow from four to sometimes seven feet under the best conditions.

Here we have some pink and yellow cannas planted along a stream bed. Cannas for the pond can be purchased already well established from places like www.PondMegastore.com .

Ken explains that for hybridization you need species plants as eventually you run into crappy mutation or genetics just break down and you stop getting nice plants.

Ken still intends on traveling the world to grab some more species material like ‘burtii’ which was lost after Dr. George H Pring’s work with it.

Please watch the 4 part series in FULL SCREEN (720p High Definition) with sound on. Please if ever writiing about the technique be sure to give Mr. Landon credit for bringing this revelation to the public. Enjoy!

Part 1 of 5

Part 2 of 5

Part 3 of 5

Part 4 of 5

BONUS Question & Answer with Ken Landon (Part 5)

]]> http://water-garden-blog.com/exclusive-content-world-introduction-to-ken-landons-tropical-waterlily-tuber-storage-up-to-10-years/feed/ 2 http://water-garden-blog.com/new-salmon-lobelia-landon-fertilizer/ http://water-garden-blog.com/new-salmon-lobelia-landon-fertilizer/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:28:26 +0000 admin http://water-garden-blog.com/?p=2219 Salmon Lobelia: New Pink Lobelia that blooms from June until just before frost. Hardy to Zone 4. The plant has been given plenty of room to grow but have only reached about 14″ tall. Slightly shorter than the cardinal lobelia but should be comparable perhaps as it gets older.

The second part of the video talks about Ken Landon’s fertilizer which is a wonderful binary fertilizer for waterlilies. Popular in Europe and especially parts of Asia where waterlilies are as  popular as any flower. In America we have become accustom to the tablets which are 50% (sometimes more) clay. A big waste of money. The binary composition of Landon’s fertilizer provides ample food for 2-3 months  at a time and the plants soak it up. Use 1/2 dose or less on baby plants so you don’t burn them up.  

Enjoy in High Definition and Full Screen Option

]]> http://water-garden-blog.com/new-salmon-lobelia-landon-fertilizer/feed/ 0 http://water-garden-blog.com/tuber-video-tim-davis-explains-tropicals-hardies-dividing-and-a-lot-more/ http://water-garden-blog.com/tuber-video-tim-davis-explains-tropicals-hardies-dividing-and-a-lot-more/#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 10:08:38 +0000 admin http://water-garden-blog.com/?p=2106 Tim Davis recently tested a new video camera we hope we will be sharing all sorts of information with you over the coming years. Since there are few water lilies to look at in April in Ohio we sent the camera to Tim in Houston Texas where he got some clips of the 2010 Nelson’s spring kickoff party. The Pre-Season ponds at San Angelo and a whole bunch of interesting pond snippets mostly for testing purposes. I promise Tim, Myself, Ken Landon, Warner and a whole bunch of special pond folk and friends will make some contributions this year and hopefully add a little social content here over the summer. I do hope to see some of you in San Angelo, if you want to join us for the symposium or lilyfest this year please post a comment and we will get you in contact with the sign up forms.

The video is great in 720 High Definition.

This video is for use by Tim Davis, Water-Garden-Blog, IWGS, and International Waterlily Collection of San Angelo. Sharing unedited on Facebook or Twitter is OK.

Tim Davis is a hobbyist water gardener and waterlily hybridizer. When he can, he volunteers to help Ken Landon at the International Waterlily Collection (IWC) in San Angelo, Texas. One of his first hybrids is named Debbie Ann after his wife. In his free time he enjoys gathering data on waterlilies and hybridizers, running the IWC San Angelo website and is also webmaster for the International Waterlily and Water Garden Society as well as the current Journal Editor.  He has a website (here) where he will sell some of his plants online in the summer and is a strong advocate of Ken Landon Fertilizer and Pond Tabs Fertilizer. In the future you will see Tim gets 5-10 blooms (sometimes more) per day off of single plants in relatively small containers.

]]> http://water-garden-blog.com/tuber-video-tim-davis-explains-tropicals-hardies-dividing-and-a-lot-more/feed/ 0 http://water-garden-blog.com/did-you-see-a-waterlily-or-lotus/ http://water-garden-blog.com/did-you-see-a-waterlily-or-lotus/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:44:42 +0000 admin http://water-garden-blog.com/?p=2001 Here is the video Ryan put together for us last summer. I thought it might be helpful for some new water gardners this spring. Lotus are tall and stand high out of the water and for the most part lilies pads grow to just about the surface and sit there with flowers inches out of the water.

]]> http://water-garden-blog.com/did-you-see-a-waterlily-or-lotus/feed/ 0 http://water-garden-blog.com/activated-carbon-for-filtration/ http://water-garden-blog.com/activated-carbon-for-filtration/#comments Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:14:37 +0000 admin http://water-garden-blog.com/?p=1863 Activated carbon or activated charcoal called by some has been used for many years in pond filtration. Known mostly for its properties as an agent that can grab almost any chemical and contain it it makes a great water cleaner. I recently learned about just how good a bacterial agent it may be as well. According to reports just 1/2 ounce has the same surface area as the Melbourne Cricket Ground (one of the 10 largest soccer stadiums in the world).

                             To use in a water garden simply fill a cheese cloth sack or some stalkings with a couple pounds of activated carbon or charcoal, tie it, rinse very well or your pond will turn black in seconds. Once you rinse until clear place in a skimmer, filter, or where the water is moving and your pond will be rid of toxins very quickly. Remove before treating with a chemical or fish medicine as the carbon will absorb it in its entirety. Change the charcoal every 6 -12 months, you can rinse a few times during the year with clean pond water or well water.

]]> http://water-garden-blog.com/activated-carbon-for-filtration/feed/ 0 http://water-garden-blog.com/iris-secret-avoiding-spring-algae/ http://water-garden-blog.com/iris-secret-avoiding-spring-algae/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:01:03 +0000 admin http://water-garden-blog.com/?p=1845  

          I should start by saying that this works in properly maintained water gardens. If you refer to your water garden as fish pond or koi pond that is the first signal you might lean more on the fish and less on the garden. In the spring remember not to begin feeding your fish until your plants are well established. You can throw off the balanced ecosystem with a single feeding and can cause some damage to fish if its real early. After winter a fish’s stomach is a little fragile. It has not had a good amount of food in many months perhaps, floating pellets or other fish-foods can cause a fish’s stomach to swell and lead to bleeding & even death. You want to introduce feeding slowly (but that’s more for a blogging fish day, you want to know about the Iris’s secret to preventing the spring algae bloom. Iris are one of the first plants to come alive in the pond, perhaps the very first. This plant and Marsh marigolds can suck the excess nutrients out of the pond beginning around the time of the final few frosts. Having a few areas of iris can dramatically reduces nitrites in the water and begin the process of cleaning the pond months before hyacinths or other plants can begin filtering the water. Iris also add a nice spring flower when hardy lilies are just beginning to send up leaves.  In the spring, if you have a few areas of established iris (Flag Iris, Japanese Iris, Louisiana Iris are all partially aquatic and can handle a couple inches of water), dont feed the fish, and do not have dead leaves and debris in the pond the chances of a spring algae bloom or green water are greatly reduced. A good water garden is a biologically correct water garden.

  

]]> http://water-garden-blog.com/iris-secret-avoiding-spring-algae/feed/ 0 http://water-garden-blog.com/paula-biles-interview-part-2/ http://water-garden-blog.com/paula-biles-interview-part-2/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:12:37 +0000 admin http://water-garden-blog.com/?p=1008  

PART 2         (To Learn more about Paula see the introduction in Part 1)

Q You note some interesting research by scientists in the book. It has been a couple of years since the book was first released as a booklet. Are there any new technological developments that have been sparked by the lotus you have come across?

It has been written that the lotus is the world’s most researched plant. Although I have no idea if that’s true, there is always some interesting investigations. Not everything is technology related, but they are fascinating for nelumbo-holics.

1)      The Chinese have sent lotus seeds into space in order to alter how they grow.

2)      Lotus DNA from varieties growing around the world is being used to track their ancestry and ‘migration’ … often with surprising results.

3)      The Lotus Effect®, as discovered by German scientists decades ago, has found practical applications into many products. An excellent video demonstrating the nano technology properties is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl35HS-3Mrc&feature=related (click the link to view video in new window)

4)      Do a Google Scholar search for <Nelumbo> to see some of the research.

  

 

Q Are lotus in other continents used mainly in the country of origin or exported? (Nancy’s question)

The lotuses used in Asian countries are predominantly grown within each country, especially when it comes to food and religious purposes. Some of those countries also export lotus in many forms and for several purposes, including ornamental gardening and food. For example, there are dried  tubers, leaves, stamens, seedheads, petals and seeds, as well as live flowers, plants, and tubers. Since all parts of the plant are used in one form or another, there is a market for them. Until other countries are able to produce Nelumbo on a larger scale, Asian countries are usually the source.

On a related note, Auburn University is studying the viability of growing lotus in Alabama as a food crop. You can read more about the Auburn University Lotus Project at http://www.ag.auburn.edu/hort/landscape/AU_Lotus_Project_Page.html.

 

 

 

 

Q From our store and from our blog we meet new people every day just beginning a water garden or perhaps even having had a water garden for more than a decade. There is so much misinformation given to consumers from gimmicks, to just plain incorrect advice. Often rumors like plants cause algae, plants should not be planted in dirt, and many more than I could even list; I am afraid that the majority of water garden owners never will find good information on water gardening and for so many it is not a relaxing entity in their yard but another project that is never complete. The online community of water gardeners has begun to gel together through IWGS, Facebook, water garden forums,  a few decent local communities, and a handful of important books, The Lotus, Perry Slocum’s Book, I am also a big fan of Robert Sawyer’s Water Gardens & Goldfish of which I have 2 copies. Is the average homeowner that doesn’t look in the right places for proper advice of out of luck or have we just not had a big enough voice until the age of the internet to really focus on what works, the truth so to speak. Do you see landscapers, box stores, and slightly ill informed garden centers as a help or a hindrance to the hobby of water gardening.  For every person who loves water gardening and enjoys it, it seems one person found it an overbearing chore.  

Some good references you can think of?

It’s probably hard for you to believe, but the lack of information and glut of misinformation is substantially less of a problem now than it was when I started water gardening in the 1980s. (And I had it much easier than the people who started out in the 1960s.) In the past decade there have been a couple dozen books published on water gardening and aquatic plants. Most are very good and some are even geared to regions of the country or specialties like container water gardens. There are several excellent and authoritative internet sites with an incredible depth and breadth of information. Plus the equipment and materials to build a pond has advanced by leaps and bounds.

The one area that seems to be lagging is an understanding of what actually happens in a pond … what’s going on in the water …. what fish do and do not need …  how plants grow …  in short, pond ecology. Once people have an understanding of the big picture — how the pond works –  then they can better understand how its inhabitants influence another. It will guide pondowners on what to do and what to avoid. It will help them work with nature and ignore crazy suggestions from well-meaning friends.

(As a collector of old water gardening books, I find it interesting that you mentioned Robert Sawyer’s book, which is from 1928. There are several other old classics that I adore and would never part with. One is the most scientific water lily book ever written – The Waterlilies –  by Henry Conard in 1905.)

Q Other than lotus, are water lilies just as interesting to you? They get more attention and perhaps that is a good reason to write the book on the lotus. 

Tropical lilies were the first aquatic plants to captivate me and I’ve been growing them ever since I had a pond. The engineering of water lilies is also fascinating, the ways that nature created a plant ideally suited to its environment. This is best demonstrated by the giant Victoria water lily. Besides the beauty of tropicals, I love their fragrance and the fact they also bloom at night.

The reason Kelly and I wrote about lotuses is that they are so interesting on so many levels, to so many cultures, and for so long in history. In addition there was a lack of written material about them.

To Be Continued….

]]> http://water-garden-blog.com/paula-biles-interview-part-2/feed/ 2 http://water-garden-blog.com/paula-biles-interview-part-1/ http://water-garden-blog.com/paula-biles-interview-part-1/#comments Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:06:56 +0000 admin http://water-garden-blog.com/?p=920  

PART 1 

        I am happy to introduce Water-Garden-Blog’s first guest expert Paula Biles. Paula’s love for water gardening and lotus go back many years. She has been a great writer on a number of subjects and on many projects from magazines to journals and even a local Florida water garden club. Many water lily (Nymphaea) and lotus (Nelumbo) hobbiest are familiar with Paula’s work.  Paula co-authored an award winning book for IWGS with Kelly Billing, of Maryland Aquatics  (also an amazing expert) which is a facinating read called, “The Lotus: Know it and Grow it”, which we have written about in a previous post. This Book won the 2009 Bronze Medal winner in the Living Now Book Awards for gardening books

       Originally created and released to the IWGS,  The book has exploded this spring across the country. I have not seen many water garden publications that have missed writing articles and reviews about the book. An easy read and not hard at all on the budget this book is a must for water garden lovers. This book goes beyond just growing lotus, it is packed with a great history of the lotus and a look at the global uses of this plant throughout so many different cultures. When someone comments on what an interesting plant you have in your water garden or perhaps container in your backyard you will be full of great knowledge that not only goes back millennia but across a number of continents and cultures. See www.AboutTheLotus.com for more K&P projects and information.

(India) Bahai House of Worship, designed after a lotus bud

 

 Zac:

     The lotus (nelumbo) are regarded around the world for their beauty. Named species I would think can be actively crossed and similar new varieties could seed and be sold as the incorrect species. Other than the Truly named organization efforts is the IWGS or any other organization perhaps keeping a controlled selection of seeds or methods of controlling some named species?

     I had honestly never considered the effects of cross pollinating until last year I visited Brad McLane at Florida Aquatic Nurseries and on his tour he told me how he had begun collecting water lilies in the early 1980s from botanical gardens who had kept the same plants from as far back as William Tricker. Also every three days he cuts the flowers off all the plants at this facility so they do not seed any cross species. Doing this for 30 years is some task but I understand how important this tactic is and wondered if the lotus had any protection similar to this that you might be aware of? 

   There are literally hundreds or thousands of cultivars of Nelumbo, many found and created outside the United States.  The IWGS of course is an international organization. Is the current setup for naming and propagating Nelumbo and Nymphaea efficient? Should something be developed for plants similar to perhaps the American Kennel Club that can account that species are properly grown and cultivated? For the first 10-15 years on the Internet I think we can blame the differences in lighting and stages of development in digital imaging for how one person displays and describes a species.  Someone in the same state can upload another picture and it look somewhat different and be described differently. I suppose I am just worried it’s a free for all on cultivars out there. Do you see this as a problem as it pertains to my first few questions and what solutions if any is the water garden community working on?

Paula:

     There are actually only 2 species of lotus — Nelumbo nucifera and N. lutea. All the hybrids (probably between 1000 and 2000) are derived from them. 

 

As with almost all plants, sexual propagation of lotus and lilies by seeds will produce offspring that are NOT the same as the parents, even if they may look alike or similar. Once a new hybrid is created, the ONLY way to keep it ‘pure’ and correctly named is to vegetatively propagate it with root/tuber division or by cloning. (For a slightly analogous situation, think about two parents who have kids. Even a set of twins has different DNA and each is unique. If the parents have more children, there’s no telling who they will look like … or what their kids will look like.) (For more on this read a basic article on Mendelian genetics.)

 

Getting predictable and accurately naming aquatic plants is not a unique problem. (Waterlilies have more of a problem than lotus, since many Nymphaea readily pollinate and quickly grow from seed. With Nelumbo that is muchless likely to happen.) As with other plant groups, this problem has multiple components. Many plant groups have it far far worse than we do – e.g. orchids or daylilies. They have many thousands of hybrids to keep track of and “monitor” for accuracy.

1)      First it’s a matter of correctly naming each cultivar with an accurate description. Ideally only worthwhile new hybrids would be considered for keeping — ones that are new, unique, and different than existing hybrids.

2)      The new variety should be able to be propagated.

3)      The new plant needs to be accurately documented and the name registered so that it doesn’t repeat one already in use.

4)      In the years it takes to build up enough stock for sale, the plants must be accurately labeled.

5)      If a grower sells an incorrectly labeled plant, the retailer has to be educated enough to realize it and correct the name.

6)      The seller has to be ethical and knowledgeable to sell correctly named plants.

 

Today, as well as in the past, buying correctly named (and consistently sized) plants has been a problem. For years the ANLA has been working on standards that address accurate container labeling – sizing, naming, etc. Unless the end seller is knowledgeable and ethical, then no program will be sufficient. And the reverse is also true, if the seller is knowledgeable and ethical, a program is not needed.

 

This was true 50 years ago and it’s true now. My uninformed opinion is that this is less of a problem now than it was before there were lots of books, magazines, and the internet, all filled with reputable plant information. I also believe that getting accurately named plants is much less important to the buyer than aquatic aficionados would like to believe. The average buyer wants a plant of a certain color and doesn’t care about the name (scientific or otherwise).  However I also believe that all efforts to provide accurately labeled plants are good, especially when combined with education for the end buyer.

 

The plant taxonomy problem has been addressed on an international scale for quite some time by the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS). They established a system for recording names of different plant groups. (http://www.ishs.org/taxonomy/) The IWGS currently is responsible for both Nymphaea and Nelumbo. You can go to our website and see the Nymphaea database, which is a work in progress. The Nelumbo registration list is being developed at the Auburn University Lotus Project and you can see it at their website.

 

In the old days (and still used in this digital age) plant hunters and hybridizers would create a herbarium to document each of their plants. This served as a way to accurately identify a plant and use for comparison if necessary. Believe it or not, sometimes more details can be retained on a dried specimen than can be captured by digital cameras. I’ve seen some of the herbaria that George Pringmade from his hybrids. They’re amazing and very illustrative of the true hybrid. Many institutions are now making their herbaria available online.

 

Your question about dogs is related by different, since dogs can only be “propagated” sexually. Things will get very interesting if cloning becomes readily available.

To be Continued…

Paula Biles often lectures and speaks about water gardens and aquatics to local and national groups. She founded a local pond club, edited PondKeeper magazine, and was the Executive Director of the International Waterlily & Water Gardening Society. Paula lives in Florida, belongs to the Garden Writers Association, and has been a regular columnist for numerous hobbyist and trade magazines. Her articles and photographs have appeared countless times in water garden magazines, newspapers, books, and online.

]]> http://water-garden-blog.com/paula-biles-interview-part-1/feed/ 3 http://water-garden-blog.com/meet-me-in-st-charels/ http://water-garden-blog.com/meet-me-in-st-charels/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:18:30 +0000 admin http://water-garden-blog.com/?p=863       In a few days we will be heading west to St. Charles for the annual symposium. This years 5 day tour will feature Mr. Pairat Songpanich from Thailand. A special auction, local garden tours, a tour of the aquascapes building and facility, a Biotope Tour at Elgin Community College. And much more. Early registration is past however you can still sign up for the entire event for $599 per person and split a hotel room at a special even rate of $120 per night. Split your hotel room with a friend or spouse and split that cost. This is most likely the worlds largest annual international water lily and lotus event.

Thailand Symposium, named water lotus tanks. See more photos at IWGS.org

Lotus and Lilies are sacred in many cultures...This made the Thailand symposium ever more interesting to experience, I did not make it.

The Aquascape Company and Building tour and talk I believe is going to focus heavily on building amidst the green movement. Collecting rainwater to use in your garden and other new features.

Aquascapes is known across the united states for professional installation services and exclusive contractor certified installations of good equipment. My hope is that in the future they focus one year on education of the complete ecosystem of the ponds with plants instead of product and chemical solutions. Perhaps this will be the year?

I will try live posting from the days and events. We will see how that works. Plenty more coming up including some really interesting information later this month!

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