

N 1880, William Tricker, originator of Water Lily 
culture in the United States, left England for this 
country. He first saw tropical Water Liles growing 
at Newport. Later as a private gardener at an estate 
on Staten Island, he experimented with growing lilies 
in pools and tubs. In 1895, he established the first com- 
mercial water gardens in America at Clifton, New Jer- 
sey. This business he sold to Henry Dreer in 1897, and 
William Tricker developed Water Lilies for that firm 
during the next few years. In the year 1907, he built 
greenhouses at Arlington, New Jersey, and re-estab- 
lished the firm originally started at Clifton. He passed 
away in 1916 among the flowers he loved and raised in 
the business so long known by his name. 
Intensely interested in hybridizing, he produced sev- 
eral desirable varieties of day-blooming tropical Lilies 
such as BLUE BEAUTY, MRS. C. W. WARD, WM. 
STONE, MRS. WOODROW WILSON and PANAMA 
PACIFIC. Although familiar from boyhood with all of 
the types of plants grown on the large English estates, 
William Tricker found the greatest satisfaction in the 
beautiful fragrant flowers of the Water Lilies and de- 
voted his life to distributing them among garden lovers. 
At the death of his father, Chas. L. Tricker took ac- 
tive management of the business, which was then in- 
creasing rapidly. Although busy with added responsi- 
bility, hybridizing was continued and new varieties such 
as PATRICIA, CLEVELAND, BLUE BIRD and ALICE 
TRICKER were introduced. Also, varieties developed 
by Missouri Botanical Gardens and other sources were 
disseminated. These include such grand varieties as 
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famous ST. LOUIS (first yellow tropical water lily) and 
GOLDEN WEST. 
The first American catalog of Water Lilies was pub- 
lished by Tricker at Clifton in 1895. Subsequent cata- 
logs have served as a handbook of the aquatic plants 
available in the United States. The business was trans- 
ferred and enlarged at Arlington, N. J., and continued 
there until the facilities were inadequate for the ever- 
increasing demand. In 1927 a new property at Saddle 
River, New Jersey, was developed. 
Today Wm. Tricker, Inc., is the established leader in 
the field of Water Lily culture and in the past few years 
has seen extensive expansion of plant and personnel. 
In 1927, the Independence, Ohio, branch was started. 
J. T. Charleson, now Secretary and Treasurer of Wm. 
Tricker, Inc., was its manager. Also in line with its 
policy of Continued Leadership, the firm is training men 
for added responsibility. Wilfred Schmidlin and Gilbert 
Lambacher have been installed as Production Managers 
at Saddle River and Independence respectively. Their 
youthful enthusiasm and sincere in- 
terest in Water Lily Culture have 
proved them invaluable to this grow- 
ing organization. 
In the future, as in the past, the 
basic principles of William Tricker 
will be followed and hybridizing con- 
tinued. The future looms brilliant 
for the William Tricker, Inc. Its 
personnel is determined to continue 
the leadership in the water lily field. 

