Ultra Violet Waterlily at www.PondMegastore.com

Foxfire Waterlily at Pond Megastore Pond Plants Online

Kelly Billing and I have been discussing the threat to the most popular water garden plant for many months so we may not be as happy as our photos appear regarding this subject. Each year now it seems more states are regulating and restricting the sale of the water hyacinth. Understandable in Florida, Coastal Texas fresh
water areas and southern California. A few hard freezes will kill the plants easily. On a mild winter they might survive a few hundred miles north however after a decent winter the supply is totally destroyed.

Nebraska has now restricted them effective January 2013. The states now restricting them include FL, AL, SC, MS, LA, TX, AZ, NE, much of CA by county, AR, and the city of Chicago. Minnesota and Wisconsin are now considering restricting the plant even though experts have misidentified the plant multiple times claiming it survives winters in areas that often reach -20 F when the plant won’t survive a week at 30 degrees (50 degrees warmer).

To add insult to injury the state of Florida recently became close to being able to ship the plant to northern states ending a silly, ‘friendly neighbor law’ prohibiting the spread of the plant which would never naturalize up north. Everything was going fine until the Federal bureaucracy got involved. Now according to colleagues in Florida the National Fish and Wildlife department has threatened to be ready to regulate state-to-state sales of the plants. Fines or worse could be issued to companies selling these plants in any of the 50 states.

If you have suggestions for the industry or can provideanyusefulscientific data you can email Kelly@marylandaquatic.com . You can also ask Kelly to add you to an email distribution newsletter on any developments on this subject.

At the same time we have been working with the International Waterlily Collection in San Angelo Texas and  Austin Texas on a Super World Waterlily Event in conjunction with LilyFest. Details on this will be coming out in a few days and we already have inquiries from all over the USA, China, and Parts of Europe.

This year at the International Waterlily Collection you will find s many new waterlilies we could not possible name them all. Intersubgenetics, over 40 new Mike Giles Waterlilies including Blue and Purple Hardy waterlilies. No display of anything like this has been seen in the public ever before. New waterlilies from Japan, Thailand, and more wonderful hybridizers. Our event will be from Thursday Sept 13th to Sunday September 16th. There will be over 300 waterliliesshown over these 4 days. We hope to have a special presentation with new hybridizer Mike Giles, new hybridizer Tony Moore, World famous Hybridizer Ken C. Landon and much more.

Larry Nau and I have discussed trying to get to Germany for their “Thai Waterlilies in Germany” festival this Summer. This month Larry also Relaunched his own watergarden nursery website BergenWatergardens.com the premier water garden, koi, and pond resource in western New York State just outside Rochester.

The first tool for the internet we are in the process of building is WaterlilyDatabase.com  a search-able online tool of waterlilies from around the world. Reaching out to international friends first like Primlarpwe have an extensive list in English now of most Thai waterlilies with photos and some with video. Séverine Lyssens-Danneboom is helping organize the German, Belgium, and other European waterlilies.

We also have many waterlilies from China and Belgium of all places. We do have plenty of other waterlilies from North America and Europe as well as species. 650 plants to start with and over 1400 photos. We also feature articles on hybridizers and gardens from around the world.

It is a true work of love as everyone is donating time to the project, over 30 contributors from around the world on 6 continents to date! This database search can also be added to empty webpages on your site!

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.

Kayaking through the native Nelumbo Lutea was incredible and by far the coolest experience of our 2011 adventures. More on that in an upcoming post. Here is a video of Mr. Mel Yoshimura who brought his pickled lotus root, or lotus root salad to the Sarasota Lotus Festival in July.

Enjoy.

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