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Jan 7, 2012 7:15 PM CST
Thread OP

Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
I've only just recently got back from down south after spending a few weeks over Christmas with family. While down there I talked some of them into visiting the Blue Lotus Water Garden. It's a nursery and watergarden set on about 5.7 hectares of land east of Melbourne. The watergarden is set up for picnics and BBQ's, and there's also a small cafe. They charge $10 entry for adults, less for children and seniors. The nursery area is free. It was certainly a worthwhile trip. They'd had a severe hail storm a few days prior and the lily pads were still the worse for wear. Being in the main growing season new flowers had quickly replaced any damaged ones.

Most of their plants are cultivars, they claim over 50 varieties of Lotus. Their lakes/dams/ponds are well established and most of the water surface is covered by vegetation. I'm not familiar with the names of their plants so this will be an unnamed series of photos.

(And by the way, never saw a single blue lotus anywhere. Must be a lotus water garden with blue water Hilarious! )

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Last edited by tropicbreeze Mar 31, 2012 1:16 AM Icon for preview
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Jan 7, 2012 7:28 PM CST
Thread OP

Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
And that was only the start of the walking track. I took well over 100 photos in all, too many to show all of them.


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Last edited by tropicbreeze Mar 31, 2012 1:16 AM Icon for preview
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Jan 7, 2012 7:42 PM CST
Thread OP

Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
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This then brought us to their green house where they had their tropicals. These had been protected from the hail so the leaves were all intact. I liked the variegation on the leaves.

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We had lunch on the cafe terrace, with this view. It was a day well spent.

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Last edited by tropicbreeze Mar 31, 2012 1:17 AM Icon for preview
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Jan 9, 2012 4:26 AM CST
Name: Brenda
Santa Clarita, CA (Zone 9b)
Charter ATP Member Cat Lover Region: Colorado Dog Lover Garden Art Hummingbirder
Ponds Region: United States of America Enjoys or suffers cold winters
Wow! Very beautiful! And that does sound like a day well spent!
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Jan 9, 2012 8:28 PM CST
Name: Carolyn Madden
Pennsylvania
The WITWIT Badge Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database! Amaryllis Ponds Purslane
Seed Starter Garden Ideas: Level 1 Plant and/or Seed Trader Hummingbirder Heucheras Dog Lover
What a wonderful day you had. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.
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Jan 11, 2012 8:22 PM CST
Thread OP

Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
Thanks for the comments, glad you enjoyed the views. It's nice to see what can be done with a reasonable spread of land (and bit of money, no doubt).
Last edited by tropicbreeze Mar 31, 2012 1:17 AM Icon for preview
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Jan 11, 2012 11:09 PM CST
Name: Critter (Jill)
Frederick, MD (Zone 6b)
Charter ATP Member Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Critters Allowed Butterflies Hummingbirder Cat Lover
Bee Lover Region: Mid-Atlantic Cottage Gardener Garden Photography Tropicals Hibiscus
Amazing photos! I just spent some time browsing the Texas Water Lilies site (they are doing a sale offer through MamaJack's cubit), choosing plants to fill 8 new 22" water garden containers... wishing I had a pond... now I wish I had acres of ponds! LOL

Some of those blooms look just unreal, as though sculpted from wax and delicately tinted.
We're all learners, doers, teachers.
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Jan 12, 2012 12:58 AM CST
Name: Brenda
Santa Clarita, CA (Zone 9b)
Charter ATP Member Cat Lover Region: Colorado Dog Lover Garden Art Hummingbirder
Ponds Region: United States of America Enjoys or suffers cold winters
I have bought several water lilies from Texas Water Lilies... we used to have two large ponds (in AZ), and everything I got from them was amazing and beautiful and excellent. I am going to get some water lilies for our gardens here in Colorado... might even do a whiskey barrel pond garden!
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Jan 14, 2012 1:49 AM CST
Thread OP

Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
Jill and Brenda, size of container (within reason) needn't be a limiting factor in deciding whether to grow waterlilies or lotus. There are some dwarf plants that can be kept in quite small containers. Their major requirement is full sun.
Last edited by tropicbreeze Mar 31, 2012 1:15 AM Icon for preview
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Jan 15, 2012 10:48 AM CST
Name: Critter (Jill)
Frederick, MD (Zone 6b)
Charter ATP Member Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Critters Allowed Butterflies Hummingbirder Cat Lover
Bee Lover Region: Mid-Atlantic Cottage Gardener Garden Photography Tropicals Hibiscus
Thanks! I'm going to try a couple of "medium" ones in my pocket-ponds (aka 22" containers) this summer; we'll see how they do!
We're all learners, doers, teachers.
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