The Tiniest Waterlily

Many posts ago I wrote about the world's largest waterlilies, the Victorias http://troybmarden.blogspot.com/2008/03/aquatic-giants.html, whose giant floating leaves may reach 8 feet in diameter in a well grown plant and whose night-time flowers approach nearly a foot in diameter. At the far opposite end of the spectrum is the diminutive Nymphaea 'Helvola' or 'Pygmaea Helvola' which, with floating pads only 2 inches in diameter and tiny yellow, star-shaped flowers only an inch-and-a-half across, can be easily kept in a tabletop water garden where it will grow and bloom just as beautifully as its larger pond grown cousins.

I became a fan of 'Helvola' when I was a college intern at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA where it held court in the water gardens along with its hardy and tropical cousins from around the world, growing just as well in a large pond as it will in a small tabletop bowl.

Growing requirements are the same as for all waterlilies: Full sun (minimum 6 hours per day) and, once growth commences in spring, a monthly feeding of a good waterlily fertilizer. This usually comes in a hard pellet that can be put underwater without dissolving and be pushed right down into the soil at the roots of the plant where it will slowly release its nutrients over a month's time. 'Helvola', being miniature, needs only about 3-4 inches of water over its crown.

Remember that the ultimate spread of a waterlily's leaves over the surface of the water is directly related to how deep in the water it sits and how long the leaf petioles must grow in order for the pads to float on the surface of the water. So, if you want to keep 'Helvola' at its smallest size, keep it as shallow as possible so that the petioles only have to grow a few inches in order for the leaves to float. In deeper water (not more than 10-12 inches, please, since it's a mini), in a pond, for instance, 'Helvola' may spread across the water's surface to a size of 3 feet, but the pads and blooms will remain miniature.

Did I mention that 'Helvola' is hardy? That's right! This diminutive creature is hardy to Zone 5 and in winter, can be dropped a little deeper in the pond (below ice level) or it can actually be removed from the water and stored in its container in a garage or storage room as long as it doesn't freeze solid during cold weather. In spring, simply repot with fresh soil, place back in the water garden and in a few weeks, Voila!, new growth and blooms for the rest of the summer. If you're growing it as a tabletop specimen in a small container, simply pour out the water and remove the entire container to a cold, but non-freezing location for the winter, refilling and placing back outdoors once spring weather arrives.

So if you're looking for a beautiful waterlily that will perform beautifully both in the water garden or in a container, look up little 'Helvola'. It's sure to impress!

Striking Gold

On my recent trip to Philadelphia I was reminded, while at Longwood Gardens, just how much I miss having waterlilies in bloom. My grandmother had a "lily pond" when I was growing up--nothing more than an old bathtub that had been buried in the ground up to its rim with a few stones laid around the edges, but it worked. Each spring I would go down and spend a day or two with Granny and we'd get the garden cleaned up and go through the ritual of going down into the cellar and hauling the rubber washtub that the waterlily was planted in up the flight of old stone steps. Granny wasn't a very big woman and I was probably only 9 or 10 years old at the time, so we'd struggle and heave and haul until we'd wrangled the thing up the steps, then drag it across the yard and plunk it down over the side of the "pool" that we had just spent the morning mucking out and scrubbing clean.

The waterlily was the old tried-and-true yellow 'Chromatella', as I recall. It was cold enough in Kansas that Granny's small "water garden", as it were, froze solid in the winter, so she overwintered the waterlily, pot and all, in the cellar. We hauled it down in the fall and back up in the spring every year for as long as I can remember. We would check the tubers, make sure they were still alive--maybe remove a few if the plant seemed to crowded--and then she would topdress the pot with some old chunks of cow manure scraped up out of the neighbors pasture and top that off with gravel from the driveway to keep the mussing up of the water to a minimum. We had, after all, just scrubbed the pond clean!

So as we were walking through the magnificent water gardens at Longwood a few weeks ago, it brought back many memories. Not just memories of my summer at Longwood, but memories of summers long past--of Granny, the old bathtub, the musty smell of the cellar after being closed up all winter long and of the first waterlily flower to open each summer. Who says you can't go back?

(The waterlily pictured here is not the old-fashioned hardy 'Chromatella', but instead is a tropical lily called 'St. Louis Gold'. It's one of my favorites of the tropical clan and was in its full glory a few weeks ago when we were visiting Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA, near Philadelphia.)

Aquatic Giants

During the summer of 1991 I had the good fortune of being selected to participate in the internship program at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. I had the even better fortune of being selected to serve my term under the guiding hand of Patrick Nutt, a renowned expert on all things horticulture, but even more renowned for his voluminous knowledge of aquatic plants and gardens. It was here, under Pat’s expert guidance, that I first laid eyes on and eventually got to work with one of the most-revered aquatic plants in the world–the giant waterlily, Victoria.

There are two species in the genus Victoria, V. amazonica and V. cruziana.

In 1961, Pat created the first hybrid between the two species and the rest is history. Victoria x ‘Longwood Hybrid’ set the bar for giant waterlilies for nearly 40 years until the cross was re-made in the late ’90’s by enterprising water garden enthusiasts Kit and Ben Knotts of Cocoa Beach, Florida.

So what is this giant waterlily? Where did it come from? Both species, Victoria amazonica and Victoria cruziana, are native to South America, the former found in the lowland rivers and lakes of the Amazon river basin, while the latter is found in higher elevations of Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina. Both are, obviously, of tropical origin, but because V. cruziana grows at higher elevations it is more tolerant of cooler temperatures. This ability to tolerate cooler temperatures is what has made it an indispensible parent to its hybrid progeny, giving gardeners in more temperate climes the ability to grow these magnificent plants.

It was a thrill for me, as a young horticulture student barely 20 years old, to work with both a renowned plant and a renowned plantsman. It was an even greater thrill when Pat invited me to join he and several others at Longwood’s famous water garden one evening to assist in the process of making the cross between the two Victoria species that results in Longwood’s namesake hybrid. The process was fascinating–everyone in hip waders, squeezing in between the gigantic, platter-like leaves some of which approached nearly 6 feet in diameter and viciously armed along their stems and undersides with inch-long spines. Pollen was transferred from flower to flower and those that “took” would sink below the water’s surface to form a seed pod that would eventually be harvested and the seed stored for the following year’s display.

These giant “water platters” are some of the most fascinating plants that I have had the opportunity to work with. As I already mentioned, they are viciously armed with spines that may be an inch long in some cases and wickedly sharp. But when you live in the Amazon, you have to learn to protect yourself from things that might decide you’re a delicacy! Before you get up close and personal enough to notice their spines, though, it’s their sheer size that never fails to impress; individual leaves may reach as much as 6 feet across on a well-grown specimen. The underside of the leaves is an intricate tapestry of veins that look for all the world like an art nouveau stained glass window and the rim of the leaf turns up around the edges, standing as much as 4 inches high in some plants.

Perhaps the most anticipated event of all, though, is the plant’s flowering, which happens at night and adds greatly to the plants’ mystique. The buds, too, are covered in spines and grow to about the size of a goose egg as they break the surface of the water. On the first night’s opening they are pure white and the size of a dinner plate, exuding the fragrance of pineapple as they float on the water’s surface. At dawn the following day, they close, and upon re-opening for their second night’s display have turned rosy pink. This display will continue on for several weeks, through late summer and well into the fall if the water temperature remains warm.
Victoria lilies are available from time to time from several of the mail order water gardening nurseries. Don’t let their ultimate size discourage you, as their growth will match the size of the pond they are growing in (within reason). They still need a little elbow room, but if you have a nice sized pond, it would be fun to give one a try. Even if you only get leaves 3 feet across, who else do you know who has a water lily that size???

For some beautiful photographs and a considerable amount of information about the amazing Victoria lilies and their hybrids, click here: http://www.victoria-adventure.org/victoria/victoria_identification.html