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Texas White List Law is DOA, just hours before the vote of the aquatic plant ban!

The good news flowed from Austin to Houston Tuesday…

Here’s the official press release from Senator Hegar’s office:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2011

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT
Lisa Craven (512) 463-0118

Hegar Rejects White List Proposal at Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

State Senator says concept is unrealistic approach for Texas

Austin, Texas—Today, Texas State Senator Glenn Hegar called on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) Executive Director, Carter Smith, to forego further work and cease implementation on the proposed aquatic plant species “white list” and the accompanying rules. Senator Hegar will sponsor a bill during the current legislative session that clarifies this request in statute.

“While I certainly think that a great deal of progress has been made, I am not confident that the arrived-upon proposal is enforceable or realistic for Texas. With the list and rules now complete, it is clear that approval of this measure would severely impact our state’s economy and the biofuel, nursery, and gardening industries across the state,” said Senator Hegar.

Through House Bill 3391 of the 81st Legislature, TPWD was directed to establish a “white list” of non-native aquatic plants approved for sale or possession in Texas. The process proved onerous as stakeholders continually came forth with new concerns and species not yet included. In September 2010, with the deadline fast approaching and the list not yet complete, Senator Hegar granted the Department a time extension in an effort to ensure that all necessary information was considered in the creation of the “white list.”

In his letter to TPWD requesting they forego further work on the “white list”, Hegar acknowledged the hard work and countless hours spent compiling a “white list” and commended the Department for their sincere and diligent collaboration with stakeholders throughout the process, but was clear that the project should be abandoned in the face of his and many others strong and decided view that it is simply not a viable solution.

“I don’t believe any of us understood the full scope and significant ramifications that adoption of a white list would present. It is my hope that we can continue to work toward a common-sense solution to prevent the introduction of invasive plants into Texas while still protecting the environment and economy of Texas,” Hegar said. “It is vital that we continue to make a proactive effort to ensure that the natural resources across this state are protected for generations to come.”

…Credit is due to many people but for us we want to send a special thank you to Mr. Rolf Nelson.

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Extinct Waterlily Species N. capensis var Zanzibariensis

Extinct Waterlily Species N. capensis var Zanzibariensis

Still alive in choice collections such as the International Waterlily Collection and a few growers for crossing hybrids. This African native waterlily species is extinct in nature.

Species waterlilies are important as you cannot develop strong hybrids the further away from the species material that you have. You begin getting mutations and poor plant qualities. The IWC San Angelo as we always write about is home to the largest repository of species material in the world. Ken Landon has saved multiple species from extinction over the last few decades helping to release varieties back into the wild such as N. flavovirens in Mexico one of his personal favorites to use in crossing new hybrids.

Enjoy one of the few peeks of N. capensis var Zanzibariensis

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Pond Outlaws, Texas water plant legislation to sweep more states.

Pond Outlaws, Texas water plant legislation to sweep more states.

[UPDATE 1/27/2011: see the Jan 27th post where the Plant Ban is currently pulled from becoming new law]

Water Garden regulation is about to sweep the nation. Texas is finalizing the white list of approved Aquatic Plants. Soon all Taro (over 100 types of Elephant ears), Papyrus, Cattails, Creeping Jenny, and a number of other long time favorites of water gardens will be outlawed in Texas with fines of $2000 per incident.

New York, Maryland, and other states are already voicing that they intend to copy this new law prohibiting 100s of Aquatic Plants and destroying business. Why? Much of this has to do with boating. Hydrilla which travels from lake to lake on the bottom of unwashed boats is overtaking waterways. Giant salvinia can also travel like this. Both plants were restricted in Texas (a black list) which is fine. However the legislation passed in 2009 now states only studied and approved plants should be sold to the state. That leaves a very short list of plants to be sold. 

As this legislation comes to more and more states the water garden industry will shrink considerably. Also the aquarium trade will be hit as the list does not include 43 aquarium plants common within that trade.

Normally Texas is a pro-business state but this really puts a dent in that thinking. Again this legislation is being copied right now in at least 3 states that we know of and as most laws will continue spreading.

This will hurt both aquarium hobbyists, pet industry jobs, water garden installers, aquatic plant growers and customers and pond societies. Complaints have come in from Canada as to concerns that they will not be able to order plants from Texas in the future due to this regulation.

See two news articles below with comments from our friends Tim Davis, Brandon McLane, and Rolf Nelson.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/01/15/2771870/texas-plan-to-combat-invasive.html

http://www.petproductnews.com/headlines/2011/01/12/texas-updates-white-list-of-aquatic-plants.aspx

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Peach Blow –  Viviparous Waterlilies

Peach Blow – Viviparous Waterlilies

Peach Blow, one of our best selling pink waterlilies, a mildly viviparous hybrid created by George Pring. It’s date of origin and publication is 1941. It has peach pink yellow petals shaped in a round shape. It has light green pads. With a recent visit with Longwood Gardens Waterlily expert Patrick Nutt he mentioned what a remakable waterlily it has been for the last seven decades.

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.

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‘TANZANITE’ Waterlily Has Arrived

‘TANZANITE’ Waterlily Has Arrived

Would you like to have some nice waterlilies sold locally?

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 .

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Ken Landon: Magnificent work

Ken Landon: Magnificent work

Ken Landon of the International Waterlily Collection in San Angelo Texas is often featured on this blog for his many accomplishments. Today we are publishing his introduction video of “Blue Cloud”. This is one of the best attractions to Civic League Park, and Australian waterlily from Gigantea crossed back over and over again over the years to improve petal count and cold tolerance (the only downfall of many Australian nymphaea).

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.

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Help keep the Water Garden Plants safe

Help keep the Water Garden Plants safe

The water garden industry is  moderately regulated due to some invasive plants that have a tendency to invade native waters when hobbyists and collectors discard them in waterways. The “former” aquarium trade which is more widespread helped to release many submerged aquatics across North America for more than a century. Today with the internet most hobbyist are well aware of the dangers as are lawmakers who in some instances now ban everything.

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.

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A Lotus worth $5.5 Billion

A Lotus worth $5.5 Billion

Paula Biles has updated us with some more cultural influences from the Lotus and both remarkable by the way.

First unlike anything seen today in the United States, Singapore has finished a world arts center & museum designed in the shape of a giant lotus flower. Sitting along the water front just as a true lotus would the center will hold 21 galleries on exhibit. (image 1 and 2) Part of the Marian Bay Sands which is a hotel and casino in Singapore. The Art-Science Museum resort cost 5.5 Billion US dollars and includes and incredible sky park.

The opening will be in February. A google search Paula pointed out shows some remarkable images of this very large new property and is one of the most impressive structures I have ever seen.

A central waterfall in the building will be fed by rain caught in the huge bowl that is formed by the roof.

The second is a Lotus Tower in Sri Lanka, India. At a cost of $103 million dollars a communications company will be building this tower beginning in about a month and broadcast media from this new building.

(Photo 3) This structure will be 350 meters tall and the top will house casinos and nightclubs.

The tower is expected to be the 5th largest in the world and a ride to the top will only take about 30 seconds.

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Earth, Ocean, and Solar Cycles

Earth, Ocean, and Solar Cycles

In the UK just two years ago news declared “Winter is Dead”, and cited that children will now grow up not knowing what snow is except in rare circumstances. They even interviewed Dr Nigel Taylor, curator of Kew Gardens. Kew has a great amount of waterlily data and is referenced often by WGI. This December of course Britain and much of Europe is having one of the coldest and snowiest Decembers in more than 100 years.

On the news this year you might have heard that March-June was possibly the warmest ever in the continental United States. How convenient if you leave out the cold months where Jan & Feb were bitter and ad only above normal months you get above normal news events. If you look at many articles over the past few years news organizations and scientists are overdoing climate change. The name itself is funny as “global warming” has been changed to “climate change” since not all parts of the earth are participating. The ice over Antarctica around the south pole reaches new records in size many years while the artic areas have seen record lows.

The only conclusive satellite data goes back just 31 years to 1979 for precise measurements. The majority of the time period both the Atlantic and Pacific were in warm PDO’s and now the Pacific and soon the Atlantic will be moving into there cold PDO’s.

The sunspot solar cycle has been at a minimum for nearly 18 months. That is longer than normal and if it persists would be somewhat similar to the lack of sunspots during the little ice age.

There are many great sources following the collapse of the global warming theory that CO2 causes much of any warming. “Watt’s Up With That” follows the global sea ice data, solar cycles and ocean temperatures like la nina and el nino that seem to have drastically more to do with warming and cooling. Joe Bastardi the big head honcho at AccuWeather also like to follow more relevant data and posts weekly or more often with amazing accuracy most of the time.

Fall Temperatures

In the UK just two years ago news declared “Winter is Dead”, and cited children will now grow up not knowing what snow is except in rare circumstances.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-512896/Winters-dead-spring-brought-forward-says-Kew-Gardens.html

The earth goes through cycles, the sun goes through cycles, both of which probably have more to do with climate conditions than a gas in the atmosphere that is equivalent in size to the other gases as a hair on the Brooklyn bridge.

As the Atlantic ocean goes into its cold PDO over the next few years more snow should result in the UK and other factors such as more sea ice near the north pole should result. If the solar cycle stays low that may also help.

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Winter Hardy Waterlilies: Helvola, Andreana, and Gloriosa

Winter Hardy Waterlilies: Helvola, Andreana, and Gloriosa

It has been some time since we took a look at some hybrid waterlilies. Today we are going to look at three more.

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

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