2010 Water Gardening Season Begins!

After a long and unusually cold winter, spring has finally arrived here in North Carolina. The waterlily team has been busy already this year, beginning with the division of all of our lotus and hardy waterlily plants at the end of March. A special thank you to John Wyman, Jean Reniers, Karen Webbink, and Jay Stoltz for their valuable help with this daunting task.

*Look for an upcoming post with step-by-step instructions for the division and planting of these aquatic plants.

The new year has also brought with it some much needed refurbishment of our fish pool/contest lily pool, meaning that this year the IWGS New Waterlily Contest will be held in the Virtue Peace Pond located behind the Doris Duke Visitor's Center. Be sure to visit often between June and September to see these brand new hybrid waterlilies from Thailand, Cyprus, Canada, the United States, and beyond! You can vote for your favorites using ballots available pond-side or on our website starting in June. The official voting by a panel of IWGS judges will take place in late July or early August.

As of today, 16 hardy waterlily entries are potted and ready to go in the pond. Four were already blooming today, and I've attached a few photos to show what is in store for the summer. The tropicals are set to begin arriving next week, with a few night-bloomers in the mix to keep us on our toes.

Of course, our water gardening season would not be complete without the ever-present companionship of the local wildlife. A pair of mallards with ten newly hatched ducklings had taken up residence in the pond last week, but seem to have moved on to another spot in the Gardens. A turtle and her offspring are on our radar, with the turtle trap in place in hopes that we can relocate them soon. A pair of Canada geese explored the possibility of making the pond home, but were quickly encouraged to look elsewhere. So far, there has been very minimal damage to report, with only a few nibbles here and there - knock on wood!

This month, look for more hardy waterlilies to come into full bloom, and keep an eye on our collection of lotus - both in containers and in the ponds. They continue to grow at a rapid rate and should begin to show some flower buds by the month's end.

We're looking forward to a great season, and hope to see you pond-side!

Another Season Ends

Sadly for all of us watergardening enthusiasts at Duke Gardens, another growing season has officially come to an end. During the last week in October, we dismantled our display ponds, which required some heavy lifting and "grubby" work as our volunteer John Wyman likes to describe it.

 Our beloved Victoria waterlilies were transferred (carefully, and with the aid of thick gloves and pitchforks) to the compost pile, while our hardy waterlilies were lowered to the pond bottom to slumber peacefully until Spring.

We then uprooted all of our tropical waterlilies and sifted through the muck and roots to find any tubers they produced over the summer months. It was a bit like a treasure hunt, though unfortunately we did not come out of it with a rich assortment of tubers. Of the tropicals that did not produce tubers, our favorites were potted in 6" round pots and transferred to our heated greenhouse tubs where we will try to coax them through the winter.

This method of saving plants from year to year is not ideal since it takes up much more valuable greenhouse space then do the tubers. In talking with other growers, including Joe Tomocik at Denver Botanic Gardens and Tim Jennings at Longwood Gardens, we will be working to increase our tuber production by growing some plants of each hybrid in 4" pots throughout next summer with minimal fertilization. The combination of small pot size and a lack of nutrients should force the plants' survival mechanisms to kick in, resulting in a much higher percentage of tuber production.

Another problem we have had for the past few seasons relates to the fast growth of our Victoria lilies. These little monsters have a very healthy happy appetite and an incredibly rapid growth rate. We have plenty of surface area available in our ponds and strive to grow the largest plants we can. The only problem is, as the plants grow, they actually push themselves upward and out of the water. This year, we had one Victoria grow so quickly that the crown of the plant was out of the water by mid-July! Since we grow the plant in this particular pond in an area of water that is 4.5' deep, we are forced to use a metal stand to keep the plant's container at a good level in the water (about 12" from the surface) that makes it easy to maintain and fertilize. However, once the crown is exposed to the hot summer sun, the new leaves and blooms quickly begin to dry up and die.

Long story short, we were forced to make a decision this summer - either leave the plant to die a premature death, or assemble a team of volunteers to help lift the pot from the stand and place it onto another pot filled with gravel on the pond bottom. We chose the latter, which made fertilization at the end of the season impossible without diving equipment, but luckily the plant didn't seem to mind too much and we were able to enjoy its presence in the pond for another three months. After talking with Tim at Longwood, I learned that they have had the same problem with their Victorias, and they actually pot their plants at the bottom of a deep pot and add soil throughout the season as the crown grows upward. We will definitely be using this trick next summer, and it will eliminate the need to purchase scuba gear to fertilize future plants - a win-win situation!

And now the long months of winter begin, leaving us with plenty of time to plan for next year. We hope to expand our collection of aquatic plants, and would especially love to add some of the beautiful Australian waterlilies to our collection. In the meantime, we will have to settle for admiring the fragrant blooms of winter-blooming water hawthorne and the evergreen foliage of sweetflag and horsetail rush to get us through.

A special thanks to the oustanding crew of water garden volunteers pictured below (John Wyman, Karen Webbink, Jeff Prather, and Jean Reniers) for making 2009 another excellent season at Duke Gardens!

Photo provided by Larry Nau.

Rainy Day Recap

The gray, drizzly weather provided a nice backdrop for our work in the ponds this morning - though the combination of earthbound water droplets and leaking waders was not ideal! With the hectic days of summer behind us, the water gardening season is winding down and our weekly maintenance has been reduced to the removal of deads leaves and blooms on the tropical and hardy waterlilies.

We have stopped fertilizing the lilies in hopes that the tropicals will begin to produce underground storage units (tubers) that we can harvest next month. We will store these tubers in damp peat in sealed plastic tubs under our greenhouse benches for the winter months. Come spring, the tubers will be transferred to our heated water tables in labeled ziploc bags and allowed to sprout new plantlets. These will then be potted and planted in the ponds next June, where the cycle will begin again.

This process allows us to save many tropical lilies from year to year while using a minimum amount of greenhouse space. The large tropical plants themselves are composted each fall. This includes our beloved Victoria waterlilies, which reached a record size for us this summer - the largest leaf measured 7' 3" in diameter, shattering our previous record of 6' 5". The world record Victoria was grown in Brazil and measured 9' in diameter, a size that we are unlikely to reach here - but we can try right?

It is not too late to see our waterlily collections this year. Stop by the Gardens before the end of this month and you will be able to view the winning waterlily hybrids in the 2009 IWGS New Waterlily Contest, alongside winners from past year's competitions. These are all on display in the Fish Pool at the base of the terraces. You will also be able to see our Victoria cruziana, Victoria 'Adventure', and Victoria 'Longwood Hybrid', which are all still blooming happily in the ponds. A special thank you once again to Dave Brigante at Hughes Water Gardens in Tualatin, Oregon and to Kit Knotts in Cocoa Beach, Florida for providing us with bareroot plants and seeds of these spectacular plants.

Also, be sure to stop by the Virtue Peace Pond behind the Doris Duke Visitor's Center to see our new interpretive sign that explains more about the genus Victoria. For more in depth information, growing tips, and stories from other growers around the world, visit http://www.victoria-adventure.org/

Waterlily Competition Winners

The 2009 IWGS New Waterlily Competition has come to an end. The official judging took place in late August, with the tropical waterlily 'Tanzanite' (pictured here) from Florida Aquatic Nurseries taking top honors as the Best New Waterlily of 2009. Florida Aquatics also won second place in the tropicals category with their hybrid 'Hot Pink'.

In the hardy waterlily division, Fourth Generation Nursery took first place with 'Cliff Tiffany' (pictured below) while hybridizer Andreas Protopapas of Cyprus took second place with 'Cyprus Pink Star'. To view photos of all of the entries and the official winners, visit http://www.iwgs.org/site-structure/.

The turnout for the public voting this year was impressive, with 1,675 votes cast using pond-side ballots and online voting. The public agreed with the judges in their choice of 'Tanzanite' as the top new tropical waterlily, while second place went to 'Silver Moon' (pictured below), hybridized by Louis Belloisy. Voters chose 'Rattana Ubol', hybridized by Pairat Songpanich of Thailand, as the best new hardy waterlily, while second place went to Andreas Protopapas of Cyprus for his unnamed hybrid, aka Hardy #5. The results of the public voting are posted on our website at http://hrweb-dev.oit.duke.edu/dukegardens/waterlilies2009-after.htm

Congratulations to all of the winners, and thank you to everyone who voted in this year's contest!

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!