Contest Waterlilies Ready for their Close-Ups

Today was another busy day in the water gardens! The morning began with the first in a series of free waterlily walks that will be offered throughout the summer months. Our hour-long stroll around the Gardens included visits to the Virtue Peace Pond behind the Doris Duke Visitor's Center, the newly constructed bog garden below this pond, the Fish Pool at the base of the Historic Terraces, and the reflection pool in the South Lawn. Topics discussed included waterlily growing tips, the importance of wetland plants and bogs as filtration systems in natural environments, entries into the IWGS New Waterlily Contest, and the impressive characteristics of the tropical night-blooming Victoria water platters. To find out more about future waterlily walks, visit our website. Also new this week: the public voting for the IWGS New Waterlily Contest began on our website at http://www.hr.duke.edu/dukegardens/waterlilies2009.htm. Votes can be cast online now, or in person at the Fish Pool beginning next week. Don't miss the chance to see these colorful new hybrids for yourself!

Sneak Peek of New Waterlily Competition Entries

This year's entries to the IWGS New Waterlily Competition have been placed in the Fish Pool at the base of the terraces and are showing off their first blooms! These new hybrids will be on display through September, with peak bloom time occurring from mid-July to mid-August. Starting in July and continuing through the end of August, visitors to the Gardens will be able to vote for their favorite lilies in the third annual "People's Choice Awards". Votes can be cast using ballots available pond-side, or by visiting our website. Here is a sneak peek of a few of the colorful hardy and tropical waterlilies vying for the Best New Waterlily of 2009. Come see them in person this summer, and let us know which lily you prefer!

A new intern and new water plants at Duke Gardens!

Let me start off my first post by introducing myself, my name is Beth Rudd, and I'm one of the summer interns working at Duke Gardens this summer. Each of us get to select an intern project, and I'm going to spend mine working in the water gardens. Today was only my second day to get into the ponds, but on a 90 degree plus day, it feels great to cool down, even in hip waders. Today we planted several tropical water lilies that are part of an international competition of new hybrids. Each lily is planted into a plastic pot, with clay soil, and then sunk into the pond. Having never done this before I was surprised at how simple it was - it doesn't even matter if the leaves of the plant don't quite reach the surface, apparently they will grow to make up the difference in just a few days! In general I've just been trying to learn about the different water plants - and how to identify them. Duke has both tropical and hardy water lilies, which you can tell apart by the thickness of their leaves, and the shape of the leaf edges. The water lotus are also hitting their prime, with big, beautiful flowers. As I waded around in the ponds I saw that these plants are also pretty vigorous, spreading several feet from their original pot. But probably what i'm most excited about are the victoria waterlilies, which apparently get huge leaves and flowers, and are native to the Amazon region of South America. Be sure to come by Duke and check out these amazing plants!

Hardy Waterlilies in Full Bloom!

It is amazing to me how fast this month has flown by! It is a very busy time here at the Gardens, and that includes the water gardens. Today our volunteer, Karen Webbink, joined me in the ponds to do a little clean-up. We were pleased to see that our hardy waterlilies are in spectacular bloom, with a rainbow of flowers gracing our three display pools. The lotus are also gearing up for an impressive show, with some leaves over 2' in diameter and flower buds visible. These should be at their peak bloom in June, so don't miss them! We've added a few new lotus hybrids to our collection this year, so keep an eye out for 'The President', 'Mrs. Perry Slocum', and 'Perry's Giant Sunburst'. All are creations of the renowned waterlily and lotus hybridizer Perry Slocum. Joining us at the ponds today were a number of bullfrogs, baby turtles, and children from local school groups! The kids were especially excited when I asked them to take a baby turtle I caught down to the South Pool to release him. One down... and countless others to go! Speaking of turtles, we were not so delighted to find that a snapping turtle has taken up residence in the Virtue Peace Pond behind the Doris Duke Center. This guy is proving to be especially difficult to catch, but he does enjoy sunbathing right next to the turtle trap... I can't be sure, but I think he's laughing at us. Next week we have our final contest lilies arriving, and the following week all of our tropicals, including the Victoria waterlilies, will be planted outdoors. Stay tuned for more info and photos in the coming weeks!

Turtles, Ducks, and Koi

It's that time of year again. Summer is right around the corner and our waterlilies and lotus are gearing up for another show-stopping season. Our hardy waterlilies are already beginning to bloom in the display ponds, with 'Red Queen', 'John Wedgwood', and 'Niki' leading the pack. Karen Webbink took this photo of 'Red Queen' while we were in the ponds cleaning and fertilizing today. There's only one problem - actually, make that three problems... turtles, ducks, and koi. Yes, our wild neighbors are once again wreaking havoc in the ponds this year. Today alone, we found about a dozen waterlily leaves floating freely on the water's surface after being snipped off one by one by a large red-eared slider. Our floating turtle trap is in place, but so far the newly leafed out lilies are proving far more tempting than the trap's two sunning decks. Joining the turtles were two muskovy ducks and two mallards. So far our feathered friends have not been too destructive, but from past experience we know it is only a matter of time. Rounding out the group are the few large koi in our ponds. These guys love to dig around in freshly planted waterlily pots, uprooting any waterlily rhizomes that happen to be in their way. To combat this, we have been placing large flat stones on the surface of the soil in each pot. It appears to be working so far! If anyone out there has other tips on how to deal with any of these troublemakers, please let me know!

Plant Sale, Pond Prep, and more!

Our spring plant sale at Duke Gardens is just hours away! Staff and volunteers are busy making preparations for the big day, and it looks like the weather will cooperate, with a toasty 87 degrees forecast for Saturday. As far as aquatic plants go, the sale this year will feature bareroot lotus tubers that are ready to plant now, along with hardy waterlily rhizomes divided from our display plants last week.

In the ponds, the volunteer waterlily team has been busy preparing for the busy summer months. John Wyman and Jean Reniers finished up their work on the waterlily stands yesterday, removing any rust and adding a fresh coat of rustoleum to keep them sturdy for this season. These stands allow us to grow our waterlilies at depths necessary for optimum growth and blooming - generally 12-18" below the water's surface. Without the stands, we would be unable to grow these plants in many areas of the ponds that average 4' deep.

Karen Webbink was hard at work again this morning in our propagation greenhouse. A water change was done in each tub and the Victoria and Euryale seedlings were fertilized. She also assisted in transplanting many of our tropical waterlily starts, which were ready to be seperated from the tubers we saved from last year's plants. We have a good collection of tropicals started, and can hardly wait to get them out into the ponds!

Lastly, we are continuing to receive entries to the IWGS New Waterlily Contest, with a hardy waterlily entry set to arrive early next week from Thailand! The tropical entries will begin to roll in next month, and all of these will be placed outdoors starting in early June. Stay tuned!

April Showers

It's a gray, drizzly day here at the Gardens, but inside our greenhouses the climate is decidedly tropical. Our Victoria seeds continue to make progress, with the largest seedling bearing leaves that are 4" in diameter - a far cry from the 6' breadth they will reach by late summer, but exciting none the less. Our Euryale seedlings continue to inch along as well, though at a slower pace then the Vics. Also jostling for space in our heated greenhouse tubs are the entries that have started rolling in for the 2009 IWGS New Waterlily Contest. These new hardy and tropical waterlily hybrids are sent in from hybridizers around the world, with the most recent entries arriving from Cyprus and Hawaii. Our waterlily team is looking forward to growing these brand new plants in the Fish Pool again this summer. The lilies can be viewed beginning in June and running through September, with the peak bloom time occurring in mid-July through mid-August. Visitors will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite hybrids once again this year - both on our website and pond-side. More details, along with photos will be posted soon.