2011 Water Garden Season Begins!

It is hard to believe that the winter and spring have passed and we are already in the midst of a brand new water gardening season here at Duke Gardens!  A lot has happened since my last post, so let me bring you all up to speed.

This year, we are continuing in our role as the host of the International Waterlily and Water Gardening Society's New Waterlily Competition.  We have a record number of 40 entries in the contest this year, including hardy waterlilies, day-blooming and night-blooming tropicals, Australian (in the subgenus Anecphya) hybrids, and intersubgeneric entries including plants that are crosses between hardy and tropical varieties.

These diverse and unique new hybrids will be grown and displayed in the Virtue Peace Pond again this year.  Photos will be taken of each entry throughout the summer months, with the official judging taking place in late August.  Once again, visitors to SPDG and our website will be able to vote for their own favorite hybrids in the "People's Choice Awards".  I will post the link for the voting site in early July, but here are just a few of the hardy entries blooming now.

In other news, I just returned from a whirlwind trip to London this past week.  During my time overseas with our Director of Horticulture, Bobby Mottern and Curator Jason Holmes, we visited Kew Gardens and met with the aquatic plants expert there, Carlos Magdalena.  Carlos showed us his amazing new Anecphya hybrids, as well as the Nymphaea thermarum plants that he has been working to propagate.  This waterlily species is the smallest in the world, and is in danger of extinction in its native habitat of natural hot springs in Rwanda.  Carlos has successfully propagated this rare gem at Kew!  For more information about his work and N. thermarum, check out the article he wrote for Water Gardeners International at this link:
www.watergardenersinternational.org/journal/4-4/contents_nm.html.

Waterlily House at Kew Gardens

Nymphaea thermarum (shown here with a much larger Anecphya hybrid)

Back at Duke Gardens, the fish pool is now up and running after months of refurbishment.  Goldfish, hardy waterlilies, marginals and a few baby turtles are now enjoying the crystal clear water provided by the advanced filtration system now in place.  The bog garden below the Virtue Peace Pond is filled with the lush growth of Pickerel Plant (Pontederia cordata), Lotus (Nelumbo cultivars), Hardy Thalia (Thalia dealbata), Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia spp.), and many more thriving marginals.

Stop by to see us in July and August to see all of the aquatic plants in their full glory!