Tom's Life Bits

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===== Waterlilies add beauty and grace =====

//By Carol Stein// \\
'Are those flowers real or plastic?"

John Wyman says he often gets that question from visitors viewing the waterlilies he cares for as a volunteer expert at Duke Gardens.

The mammoth Longwood Victoria waterlilies, with pads more than five feet across, seem to raise the most skepticism. Native to the tropics, Victoria waterlilies aren't feasible for the average water gardener -- the plant requires a 20- to 50-gallon pot and a pool that allows it to spread up to 40 feet in one summer. Oh, and it has to move indoors in winter.

But, home gardeners can have a real waterlily growing on the patio or even a tabletop. Tamara Kilbane, a Duke Gardens horticulturist who cares for aquatic plants recommends 'Lindsay Woods' as a beautiful small tropical with purple blooms. She also favors 'Helvola' for light yellow flowers and 'Perry's Baby Red' for its dark pink blooms. Kilbane says that these varieties are miniature hardies that can be grown in small containers.

Wyman recommended 'Blue Dauben' (N. Daubenyana), which, he said, can grow to any size based on sun, space, fertilizer and pot size. "I've grown this one inside my home for the winter and placed it outside in my pond and had it grow to great size," he said.

A tropical day-blooming waterlily, Blue Dauben's flowers open early in the morning and bloom until evening. Because it reproduces by growing tubers for next season, Blue Dauben should be taken indoors before water temperatures go below 60 degrees in the fall. Store the tubers indoors in a 5-gallon pot of moist peat. Next spring pot up the tubers and add them to the water garden when outdoor water temperatures warm up to between 72 and 80 degrees.

Hardy waterlilies, such as the Helvola or Perry's Baby Red are easier to care for in outdoor situations. In my in-ground fish pond, I've had great luck with my hardy lilies coming back year after year. A waterlily garden is fairly low-maintenance. In my garden, my husband cleans the filter on the recirculating pump that shoots a low jet of water out of a stone frog's mouth. Submerged aquatic plants add oxygen and filter impurities, and a few small goldfish control mosquito larvae. Water gardens also attract frogs, toads, lizards and birds to eat airborne insects.

Want to grow your own waterlilies? We tell you how.

In the meantime, please don't add any plastic waterlilies -- they can't hold a candle to the real deal.

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