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HENDERSON’S PICTURESQUE GARDENS 
AQUATICS AND 
The growing of Water Lilies and other aquatic plants in 
lakes and ponds is most fascinating, and is becoming more 
popular every year as people are beginning to realize how easily 
they are grown and how gloriously effective they are. A few 
years ago scarcely any hardy Water Lilies were known but our 
common pond lilies, which, by themselves, lacked effectiveness and 
interest. Now we are able to associate with them many hardy 
hybrid Nymphasas which grow freely and produce flowers in con- 
tinuous profusion during the summer season. These blossoms 
are exquisitely colored, ranging from white through shades and 
tints, including yellow, citron, flesh -pink, rose, carmine, crimson, 
currant-red, etc. The large open blossoms, resting like jewels 
on the water, gem its surface with colors brilliant, delicate and 
varied, rivaling any flower bed. 
Among the tender varieties of Nymphasas, also easily grown 
in summer, we have, in addition to colors similar to the above, 
blue shades ranging from daintiest porcelain and lavender to 
royal purple. Some Nymphasas produce numerous miniature flow- 
ers as small as a silver fifty-cent piece ; others bear magnificent 
blossoms over a foot across. 
Besides the Nymphasas, the flowers and foliage of which 
float or are supported near the surface, we now have several 
hardy varieties of the majestic Lotus, with flowers of white, pink, 
crimson, yellow, striped, etc., which, being borne with their luxuri- 
ant leaves high above the water, break with oriental splendor the 
flat monotony. 
In addition to the Nymph^as and Nelumbiums — the "Water 
Lilies” proper, as popularly understood — we have numerous other 
plants that grow in the water and produce beautiful flowers, such 
as the Water Hyacinths, Water Poppies, Water Snowflakes, etc. 
WATER GARDENS 
Among the great charms of water-gardening are the properly 
planted moist banks, where many hardy and tender moisture- 
loving plants thrive with tropical luxuriance and constitute one 
of the greatest attractions of the landscape. The variety of 
plants suitable for this purpose is too numerous to describe 
here, though the notable examples are Egyptian Papyrus, Japan 
Iris, Swamp Mallow, Bamboos, Musa, Gunnera, Caladium and 
Reeds and Grasses, such as Arundo, Eulalia, Pampas Grass, etc. 
Water Lilies thrive best in sunny situations, in shallow lakes, 
semi-stagnant ponds and sluggish streams, where the water warms 
up thoroughly and the soil is rich and mucky. Then the culture 
of hardy varieties is simply a matter of planting. Where such loca- 
tions are not available artificial ponds, with cemented bottoms and 
sides, may be constructed, or more modest water gardens may be 
established in tanks formed of planks made water-tight with white- 
leaded joints and seams. A still simpler method for small 
grounds and back- yard gardens is to use tubs, half-barrels or 
half-hogsheads, in which moderate-growing aquatics may be planted. 
The tanks or barrels may be either sunken in the earth or 
allowed to remain on the surface ; in the latter event they can 
be partially surrounded by rockwork and soil in which ferns 
and foliage plants may be grown, thereby greatly enhancing the 
picturesque effect. A very slight flow of water into the tubs or 
tanks, while desirable, is not absolutely essential, if fresh water is 
poured in occasionally to make good the loss from evaporation. 
Goldfish and sunfish thrive in tanks, ponds, etc., with grow- 
ing vegetation, and devour all larv$ of mosquitoes and other 
insects in the water. If the fish are sufficiently abundant they 
will destroy and prevent the formation of the green scum that 
sometimes forms in stagnant water. 
