It took me quite a while to get an ID on this waterlily. It's a night flowerer with the flowers sometimes staying open to midday when it's overcast. The flowers are pretty large, they only last a few days. They seem to multiply rapidly but not sure whether it's from seed. Although, there are many small plants looking more like seedlings. It's a cultivar called Nymphaea 'H.C.Haarstick' and is apparently a cross between Nymphaea 'Mrs D.R.Francis' and an unknown plant back in 1922.

Last winter I put them out into a large tub while I was planning some work on the pond they were in. However "The best made schemes of mice and men" intervened and the waterlilies overcrowded the tub. When the wet season rains came and my swamp filled I put a lot of them in a deeper pool there. Unfortunately there were still some Magpie Geese around. One of the main foods of these geese is waterlily tubers. They practically cleaned them right out in one day. A couple of smaller plants survived. But there were still some larger tubers in the tub. These are now flowering. The pool in the swamp would have looked nice with several flowering plants. Oh well, that's how it goes. Gardening is full of surprises.

The original pond they were in




The tub they were placed in.


One of the survivors in the pool in the swamp.

Zig

They are gorgeous! Do you know if they have a fragrance as well?

I am green with envy. My waterlilies, even the hardy ones never look so good.

Tropicbreeze, I think I have the same lily. Nightbloomers are sold here by two names, white or pink. I've had this one for about 3 years, it was slow starting but now it is growing huge and I have several others potted and blooming as well. The young leaves are a beautiful copper/red color with ruffly edges and start out an arrowhead shape. I think it does spread by seed as I find tiny plantlets from it in all the pots in the pond. The blooms are very large, stand well above the water and last about 3 nights. Mine too will stay open in the morning until the sun hits them.

Some pics.

Thanks for all those comments.

Carolyn, I gave them the old sniff-test and didn't get anything. And my nose isn't blocked, my olefactory equipment is in good working order .

Mary, somehow it's difficult to conjure up images of waterlilies when you have Alaska in the back of your mind. Are your plants indoors, or in a green house? I'd guess to get good results you may need to warm the water a bit.

Jonna, yes they are a beautiful plant. There's another red one that's called Malay Red (or something like that). I don't have a white night flowerer. I do, however, have our native white one but it's a day flowerer. It flowers end of wet season, and all through the dry season when there's enough water.

I've found that this nightbloomer needs even warmer water than the day blooming tropicals. It is starting to slow down here now and it doesn't bloom at all in the coldest month of the year. The coldest the water temps get in my pond is about 74°F and that is generally only the month of Feb depending on when we get those colder nortes. The one I have in the roof pond will bloom all year but slow down in Jan and Feb, that pond is in full sun and isn't as deep as the pond in the yard so the temps stay higher. When the water is in the 90°'s F they bloom like crazy, so I'd say they love hot water.

I've sniffed them and not smelled any scent at all.

Yeah. My water rarely gets above 70-75. I thought maybe the hardy ones would grow. They at least provide lily pads and the occasional flowers so it is good for the fish.

Zig

have you added your waterlilies to the database? They sure are beauties!

thanks for the heads up on the fragrance. I could be wrong, but it seems that only a few varieties have a fragrance.

Jonna, I haven't checked water temps but there is a period in the dry season when they seem to slow down. The pond is in the shade then and on the windy side of the garden. That wouldn't help.

Mary, guess it depends how far you want to go with them. There are ways of heating ponds if they're sheltered from your weather.

Carolyn, I haven't come across any fragrant waterlilies, not that I've specifically looked for them. It could be worth finding out if there are any around.

We had a monsoonal burst come through in the morning so it was cooler and cloudy. The lilies stayed open until 11:45 am. The tub is about 1.5 metres diameter. There's two flowers now but 3 buds already up out of the water. Tonight, or probably tomorrow night, there'll be 5 flowers. And I noticed the bottom of the tub is carpeted with seedlings. Don't know whether it's just this one or else the white day flowerer that I've got in there as well.

We've had a cyclone brewing off the coast the past few days but although it looks to be missing us we've now been getting torrential rain. For the 12 hours up to midday today I got 124.8 millimetres. Needless to say everything is flooding as it's been raining a fair bit for over a week anyway. The night flowering waterlilies in my swamp have been flowering, although still being young plants the flowers aren't full size. This rain has meant it's overcast and dark enough all day for the flowers to stay open. All the same, they've taken a bit of a battering from the heavy rain. But they're battling through. The swamp is beginning to look more of a lake. Be interesting to see if the crocs take the opportunity to re-occupy it.

Some photos taken during this mornings rain. The black on the leaves aren't holes, that's flood debris from when the leaves went under.

Let's hope the crocs stay out. Looks like you have the same kind of deluges we get from storms in the rainy season. A near miss is a lot of rain. Those night bloomers look so much like the ones I have and mine are breeding fools. I find small ones coming up all over and they crowd the pots I have them in so much that none of them can get enough nutrients to get large. I have to 'weed' them out of the pots.

Jonna, natural species have generally evolved to fit in their niche without upsetting anything. But when we come along hybridising and the like we produce misfits that then have to be babied and mollicoddled to grow properly and survive.

It's times like these when water is up higher than usual that the crocs come out to survey their territory, especially the parts that are drier most of the year and they often can't get to. I can see their tracks when they get out onto the road, but in the swamp it's too difficult. One of the neighbours had the wildlife authorities put a croc trap on her place. Haven't heard whether they've got anything yet.

Wow, Zig, that is a lot of rain. I gather this is a normal part of your weather pattern?

I would agree that these gorgeous plants have evolved to fit their niche in the world of plants and flowers and then man comes along and the 'creates' something that requires extra care and babying.

Carolyn, is it really a normal pattern. The rainfall can vary tremendously for the same month from year to year. One or even 2 months might be extra high and the rest closer to average. Some years you'll an extremely high month with others fairly high. But it all happens in the wet season, October to April. Although the wettest is usually December to April.

The rains have eased again so the lilies aren't getting battered now and are making the most of it. They should have another 6 or so weeks and then the water will probably start to drop. Where they are there wouldn't be water by June. Then no water until December or maybe even January.

Zig

such vibrant, gorgeous colors - I am sure they are much better in person too!

That's for sure Carolyn. It will be a pity when the season ends and the water dries up. I'll miss seeing them. I don't want to put them back in the original pond they were in. It was too small, and besides it's been given a new destiny.

We have seasons too in the tropics, mainly wet and dry but everything changes. That's a dramatic change, but it seems they are adapted to it. They are beautiful.

I can't help asking, looking at all that water, do you have a big problem with mosquitoes? I think you said there is dengue there, how about malaria?