364 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



HARDY NYMPHAEAS. 

 By Mr. A. Bedford, of Gunnersbury House Gardens. 

 [Lecture delivered on August 6, 1907.] 



Nymphaeas, or water-lilies, have existed through many ages, and no other 

 class of plants is more widely distributed at the present time. Species 

 are indigenous in almost all parts of the world, and such diversity of 

 flower-colour as white, blue, yellow, red, and many intermediate shades, 

 is found in the genus. 



Until the introduction of the coloured hardy hybrid water-lilies, our 

 water-gardens were little thought about, and contained merely a few of 

 our native aquatics, including our own native water-lily Nymphaea alba. 

 But with the advent of the coloured water-lilies our garden waters began 

 to improve, and have continued to do so up to the present day. Judging 

 from the many beautiful and marvellous groups of aquatic and water- 

 side plants which have been exhibited at our horticultural shows 

 throughout the country during the past few years, perhaps in no other 

 branch of horticulture have popularity and progress been more rapid than 

 in the cultivation of aquatics. Another proof of this progress is found 

 in the special lists and the many pages of catalogues now devoted to 

 this class of plants by the different nurserymen who make a speciality 

 of them. 



Although we have a number of beautiful Nymphaeas from various 

 growers and raisers, it is to M. Latour-Marliac we owe, perhaps, the 

 heaviest debt of gratitude ; for he was the first to give us hybrid hardy 

 water-lilies ; and, while others have since been introduced, the Marliac 

 hybrids hold their own, and for general utility are still unsurpassed. 

 Now that our lakes and ponds may be studded over with these dainty 

 water-lilies, resembling, as it were, brilliantly coloured stars, swaying to 

 and fro in the breeze, and in brilliance of colour rivalling the Nymphaeas 

 of the tropics, it may be said that no present-day garden is complete 

 without some of these floral gems. 



The cultivation of aquatics is of the very simplest : all they require 

 is some good soil or the mud such as is found at the bottom of natural 

 lakes. This is the natural food of Nymphaeas. Given this to grow in 

 and plenty of water above them, they soon establish themselves and 

 grow into handsome specimens, covering the surface of the water with a 

 wealth of beautiful foliage intermixed with star-like flowers. But though 

 the culture of Nymphaeas is so simple, it must not be thought that, once 

 planted, there they are to remain for ever undisturbed or uncared for. 

 No ! Just as the perennial asters and sunflowers and other plants of our 

 herbaceous borders require to be dug up and divided when they become 

 too thick or get out of bounds, so with Nymphaeas. After growing for 

 a few years, some, such as the Marliacca section, being very vigorous 

 growers, become so crowded, and produce so much foliage, that the 



