Today Tony Moore, creator of such new waterlilies as the incredible Ruby Star and Black Cherry shares a lotus seedling growing out of the seed. Enjoy in full screen.
Jack Wood – Great Red Waterlily
Jack Wood has been a popular red tropical waterlily for years. Recently outshined by ‘Charlies’ Pride’ by charels winch and then ‘Bull’s Eye’ by Florida Aquatics. Jack wood remains an incredible red bloomer. Take a look at all the blooms on the plant in the second half of todays video blog.
This waterlily is currently for sale at http://www.pondmegastore.com
Waterily Seedlings
Today Mike Giles shows us many of his new hardy blue and purple waterlilies. These intersubgeneric waterlilies, Hardy x Tropical crosses are many of the first from North America. Mike has been crossing them since 2005 and these are the first ever videos of the plants.
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
Facebook Fix
We did fix the facebook link on the sidebar. Please Join over 6000 people on our facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/PondMegastore There are constant water garden photo contests in which you can win free pond plants or waterlilies of your choosing. The new PondMegastore.com is also still being updated with new help and resource pages. New features will be added through the rest of the rollout into July with monthly updates after the design is complete.
Purple Satin, The Purple Hardy Waterlily by Mike Giles
We hope these waterlilies will some day soon be available from PondMegastore.com. Purple Satin or one of the many new purple and blue hardy brother and sister plants created by Mike Giles. Last week I went and visited Mike on his farm and documented the first video of the Purple and Blue hardy waterlilies. All Hardy x Tropical crosses, even some Hardy x Tropical night blooming crosses. Mike has hundreds of waterlilies in the pipeline we cannot wait to share with everyone but today is the day to introduce his video of Purple Satin. I will let Mike tell you about this one of many.
Rhapsody In White
One of now four Ken Landon flavoviren crosses we are selling. This one is already sold out after just 48 days of availability this year. We will have plenty more for 2012. I love the multiple tall white flowers over chocolate pads. I will post some new videos soon.
Chinese Lotus update: Day 17
Day 17, Three of the new Chinese Lotus, ‘Drunken Concubine out of Bath’ (left), ‘Red Lantern’ (right), and ‘Dasa Jin’ (back). Each is growing faster as return to warm days in the 80s and lows in the mid to upper 50s.
Lotus (nelumbo) 2011
Planting Spring Lotus … order soon most vendors will be out in the next 3-6 weeks for the year.
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.
NEWS
New spring videos are in production now.
Later this week we begin rolling out Pond Megastore 3.0 with new improvements. The site will take a few week for all the new features but look forward to much easier navigation, many new pond products, much improved information on plants and planting information. The new site we hope will be more beneficial than any other water garden company has ever provided in the past.
Remember it will be rolled over time, in steps over May 11th through June.
Please let PondMegastore.com know what improvements you would like to see. We have almost 4000 facebook users taking advantage of our Facebook specials and information.
Wanvisa price, IWGS verge of a comeback or extinction?
UPDTE 5/16/11:
Tamara Kilbane, grower of the International Waterlily Competition plants in Raleigh, NC, has offered her observations and tips for enhanced blooming of Nymphaea ‘Wanvisa’.
“As far as my observations of ‘Wanvisa’ – it is a very fast growing plant and a good bloomer. We saw an average of 2-4 blooms open each day throughout the season, which was no less (and in fact more) than what we saw in many of the contest hardies. Because it does grow so fast, it can become root-bound by the end of the season, which can in turn cause a decrease in the number of flowers while also causing the foliage to mound above the surface a bit.
I really felt that this plant was a stand out in our pond in 2010. It bloomed steadily (the blooms do open a bit later in the day than other hardies, but it is worth the extra couple of hours of waiting), and the foliage is stunning in its own right. It is already blooming for us in our pond this year, and removing the eyes that are already forming on the rhizome seems to be helping us to keep it in check while giving us larger blooms. Because it is a sport of ‘Joey Tomocik’, it remains to be seen how hardy it is in colder climates. Joe is currently growing it at Denver Botanic Gardens, and many members of the Colorado Water Gardening Society will also be growing the plant this year – it will be interesting to see what their observations are. Tim is also growing it at Longwood, and Missouri Botanic Gardens also has a plant.”
From Zac:
There is some great news about Wanvisa, the 2010 Champion waterlily will available to many more than originally thought. The International Waterlily and Water Garden Society bought many of these amazing new waterlilies and have been selling it as a fundraiser. Initial sales (October-February) were not what they expected and before any plants had been shipped they sold off a number of plants to wholesalers and collectors.
Luckily for the budget wise, Wanvisa is one of the most rapid producers of new plants. One single rhizome can create 20 or more plants easily in a 5 month growing season. So with all the plants currently multiplying plus the ones the IWGS has not sold, the price by spring of 2011 should have the prices down to about the same as almost every other hardy waterlily.
Funding has been a problem for the IWGS the past decade and the Certified Aquatic Plant of the Year was one idea for new revenue. The IWGS has yet to come up with a business plan that can support their efforts on a year by year basis. They have stopped charging members for annual dues but have yet to lay out a benefit to members other than a quartely Journal and Annual symposium. The speakers at the events are good and the 2010 Symposium was a hit at the International Waterlily Collection in San Angelo. The prior year in Chicago the number of waterlilies to be seen at the event was somewhat low. Once a fan of the IWGS I am hopeful for some internal changes in the organization which seems to lack an outlined focus or direction. The best sources for waterlily information currently remains Water Gardner’s International which has an extensive database however has had a recent short pause in update. The IWGS only remaining strength is in the Journal which continues to provide decent quarterly information.
Koiphen, American Ponders, InternationalWaterlilyCollection.com , AboutTheLotus.com and Facebook are the only up to date and active goings on outside of regional pond societies. Has Facebook taken the position of the IWGS in social circles? Or has the IWGS lost all focus on its mission and plan for the future? In the coming weeks the society is going to “relaunch” or reboot its website but I have heard of no actual plan on it providing relevant material. We are sure the site navigation will be improved.
If the 2011 Quindo symposium is a success the society will probably have turned a corner in its financial situation and if the website is improved with content and made interactive they can restore relevance to its brand. We look forward to seeing how the 2011 summer turns out.
-Zac deGarmeaux
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