Victorian Water Lily

On Sunday Hubby and I went to the Botanical Garden here in town to see the newly-opened Tropical House. The main attraction on this day was the Victorian Water Lily in bloom. According to the sign, it only blooms for 2 days. The first day it is pure white and female. Insects landing on it for nectar are caught when it closes for the night. When it opens the next morning it is pink and male! The insect flies off with the pollen to fertilize another white female lily. The leaves are huge, about 150cm in diameter, and due to the veined struture filled with air on the underside, are able to support a person. The lily was in a large pond with other water plants and tiny fish.

The Tropical House was very well set up with paths leading up and down, lined with giant bamboo, over a tiny brook, going past several small almost hidden ponds, tiny bogs and a beautiful waterfall. This cascaded over a 3-4 meter wall of natural stones into a pond where a large water turtle swam. We walked under some overhanging plants, then going on up a few steps to walk between large plants and parasitic ones on tree trunks. (BM, your alter ego was of course there too). There was a corner with seasonings like pepper, vanilla, and so; another with edible plants (peanuts, taros, etc.); then various medicinal plants, climbing ones, ferns, etc, etc, etc. Spanish Moss hung down in many places, most of it about 5 meters long. Tiny plants peeked out from under larger ones. I think that even after visiting here ten times, we'd discover something else on the next visit.

[ 28. August 2006, 12:41 PM: Message edited by: Kedi-Gato ]

 

I'd love to see one of those. We went to Kew in February, but the tropical house was closed for refurbishment.

 

CORRECTION ! ! !

The Victorian Water Lily blooms during the night and closes during the day!

 

Second visit. We went during the regular opening time on our first visit, so the flower was closed and white. The other day our local newspaper said that the next flower would be blooming and that this time the Botanical Garden would have a special opening, Saturday & Sunday from 9 - 11 pm. We went Sunday evening to see the pink male flower, as did a lot of other people. The flower tricked everyone by blooming Friday and Saturday so we all only saw a pink bloom that was closed and sinking. The lady in charge said that the next one should be in it's 2-day blooming stage the coming weekend. We're hoping for better luck then.

 

Third visit. Last evening Hubby heard on one of the national TV programmes that the Victorian Water Lily in our town's Botanical Garden was to bloom this evening, so we jumped into the car and drove there. This time we were in luck and finally got to see it blooming white - what a beautiful sight! We were also lucky in that it wasn't in the local paper yesterday and that not many people in our town caught the news of it, and so there was no jostling for a good place this time.

 

incredible!! great that you were in luck at last! Were you allowed to take photos?

 

By eck! Thats amazing Kedi-Gato! I just hope, like Dendrobium, that you have some pics to show!

Kind regards
Roy

 

Would like to see some pics also Kedi :D

 

the lily that kedi-gato is talking about is in one of the glass houses at KEW gardens,

 

you can see them at the Botanics in Edinburgh too - but as they say - they ahve to rear them as annuals

http://www.rbge.org.uk/rbge/web/hort/e_feat/glass.jsp

 

Yes, we were able to take pics but since we just have an old-fashioned camera and also a PC where we cannot put anything up, you will have to be patient while I ask around who can put pics up for me. Must still use the last film up and then take it to be developed, as the third visit pics are on it.
They rear them as annuals here too dendrobium.