138 
August* 1 8’9 1 
ORCHRR GARDEN 
Water Lilies. 
For a few year's past increased attention 
lias been given to the cultivation of Water 
Lilies, not only under glass, 
hut as ornaments for the 
lawn, for which purpose 
they are mostly grown in 
fountains, small tanks, and 
tubs. In this way the foun- 
tains in some of our public 
parks have recently been 
made exceedingly beautiful 
and attractive, and they 
have also served the excel- 
lent purpose of making the 
general public familiar with 
some charming forms of the 
Water Lily that have hith- 
erto been confined to the 
homes of the rich. 
The next step forward 
should be the Water Lily 
Garden, the possibilities of 
which in several directions 
are very great. Some of 
these we propose to point 
out and illustrate from time 
to time, as occasion may 
serve. One object will be 
an effort to dispel a common 
illusion that Water Lilies 
are very difficult to grow 
and also very expensive. 
Grown under glass, some 
of them are expensive; for 
example, Victoria Regia, 
the magnificent Amazon 
Lily. The plants of some 
rare kinds are dea r too, 
grown indoors or out; but 
that is the case with all rare 
plants. There are enough 
beautiful kinds left, how- 
ever, that can be bought for 
the price of a good Rose. 
Some may be grown from 
seed, while our natives can 
be'had for the digging. We 
propose to confine our re- 
marks chiefly to those that may be success- 
fully grown and bloomed in the open air, 
and thus become, as it were, everybody’s 
Lilies. 
So far as we can remember, Roswell L. 
Colt was the first among us to grow exotic 
Lilies. That was years before the days of 
Victoria Regia. Mr. Colt was a very 
wealthy man, and he did things on an ex- 
tensive as well as an expensive scale, and 
many visitors were attracted to his beauti- 
ful place at Paterson, N. J.; but the im- 
pression was generally produced that grow- 
ing exotic Water Lilies was too expensive 
for common people. 
The late Caleb Cope some years later de- 
voted an entire house to exotic Water Lil- 
ies, and was the first to bloom the Victoria 
Regia, which was one of the sensations of 
the day. We thought we were in Fairy 
Land the first time we saw this house. Hor- 
ticulture owes much to this very amiable 
gentleman. 
Mr. Cope was soon followed by Mr. Cush- 
ing of Boston, who also grew the Victoria 
with marked success. Later on Victoria 
appeared in Cincinnati and other places 
with more or less success, and generally 
less, for several reasons. 
It was left, however, for Mr. Sturtevant 
of Bordentown, N. J., to demonstrate that 
all manner of Water Lilies (including Vic- 
toria Regia,) can be successfully grown in 
the open air, and to him, we think, must be 
given the honor of having taken the first 
steps to make Water Lilies generally popu- 
lar. We have never visited Mr. Sturte- 
vant’s place, but we have seen many fine 
plants from his large and rare collection, 
and have grown some of them. 
Later came Mr. L. W. Goodell of Dwight, 
Mass., who is also entitled to a front placte 
for his labor in popularising the Water 
Lilies as outdoor plants. Growing them at 
first simply because he loved them, he was 
after a while so overrun with applications 
for seeds and plants that he was compelled 
to put a price upon them and make a busi- 
ness of selling them. This business has 
now become one of gOodly proportions. 
This Seeths to be a good time, therefore, 
to make these beautiful Water Lilies more 
widely known, and remove, 
if possible, some of the ob- 
stacles that have seemed to 
be in the way of their gen- 
eral cultivation; for these 
obstacles are more seeming 
than real in many cases. 
There are many places that 
are naturally suitable for 
their growth, or that can be 
made so in a comparatively 
inexpensive way. There 
are others that w ould re- 
quire a considerable outlay, 
but not more than is often 
devoted to a lawn. The first 
point, however, is to con- 
vince people that they can 
grow Water Lilies. The 
conditions are nearly the 
same for all, the chief differ- 
ence being temperature, and 
our summeis usually fur- 
nish enough of that to suit 
the most fastidious of the 
family. 
Let us see how Nature 
grows them; and for illus- 
tration we will take one of 
our own native Lilies, Nym- 
phoea odorata, or White Wa- 
ter Lily, one of the sweetest 
and best known. Many 
readers of Orchard and 
Garden probably live near 
a river or lake where this 
Lily grows abundantly. Go 
down and spend an hour or 
two occasionally in study- 
ing the plant as it grows, 
and you will find there is 
nothing particularly mys- 
terious about the growth of 
the plant. Try to pull one 
up, and you will doubtless 
find you cannot do it; for 
the roots are firmly imbedded in the hard 
soil. That is one thing to remembeT. There 
are anglers who do much of their best fish- 
ing among the Lily pads who can give some 
gardeners “points” about growing Water 
Lilies; for they make a study of them while 
waiting the pleasure of the fish. You wdll 
notice, too. that these Lilies grow in water 
anywhere from a foot to five feet or more 
in depth, the leaf stalk being elongated till 
the blade reaches the surface. A notable 
instance of this may be found along the 
banks of the Otter River in Vermont, where 
