Water Lily

A Water Lily in our garden pond ~ Pygmaea Rubra

Water Lily Flower

Photos taken from 14th to 26th June 2012

64 comments

    • I had a lily as a screensaver ages ago – a puple coloured one that I saw one time in India, if I hadn’t taken the photo myself I would have sworn it had been photoshopped, the colours were so vivid!

  • Gorgeous – particularly the opening bud. Loved them – well of course I would, waterlilies being second only to Lotus in my list of favourite flowers:)

    • Thanks BAM, I’ve been sitting on our steps in the garden willing it to open for several weeks, patience was definitely needed šŸ™‚

  • Stunning photos! I just adore summer and being outside to linger in all that vibrant color!

    • The pond is at home in our small garden and I can sit sipping my morning cup of tea watching it, a lovely way to start the day Deb!

  • so beautiful, I have a tropical garden & have some of these, but they don’t look like yours. I guess they want to be in a pond. I have them in big pots. Thanks for sharring,

    • Oh a tropical garden sounds wonderous! I must come and take a look at your blog. I have friends who grow them the in big pots or barrels and they seem to do ok, this is a small one (our pond is tiny) and it’s been planted for 3 years and flowered once last year and now this year, so I’m hoping for more. I have to say my knowledge on water gardens is as small as our pond!

  • Oh.. how gorgeous.. I would love to have a little pond, just so I could float these little water lily’s on them. Beautiful photography here as well, Claire! xoxo

    • Thanks Smidge, you can grow these in barrels or large pots, but I don’t know how well they cope with the cold? Maybe there’s someone clever reading this who could tell us!!

  • Wonderful photos of a beautiful flower. My dream house will have a reflecting pool filled with water lilies — and gardeners — and a bartender. šŸ˜‰

      • Uh oh I think this list could grow and grow. Can we add a pool with a pool guy too, oh and a masseuse on tap, I’m partial to a pedicure as well and then someone to hold my book at the right angle would be rather delicious. Hmmm maybe we should stop at the bartender and olive crusher šŸ™‚

  • So glad you let us see the lovely sequence together instead of a day at a time. I would have been dancing with impatience.

    • Hi Alice, thank goodness I did otherwise you’d have been all danced out by the time the finale came around – it took weeks to open (it was so cold here!!) – unless of course you are some kind of olympic dancer šŸ˜‰

  • How beautiful to see that you photographed the sequencing. I haven’t really done that with mine. The lily I use as my avatar is from our water garden, and looks very similar, doesn’t it! I find it an interesting challenge to keep the water from becoming too cloudy with algae, but if I over-correct than the lilies and lotus don’t bloom. They need the nutrients! Does you do anything in particular with your lilies over the winter? Ours die back, but since the water doesn’t freeze we don’t do anything more. I’d assume you’d have to protect it? Lovely photos, Claire!

    • Oh Debra, I can learn from you! I know NOTHING about water gardening, it’s totally new to me, and it’s been pot luck so far! What do you use to balance things out? I’ve tried using barley straw to help control algae which to be honest hasn’t really worked very well. And the oxygenating plants I added got swallowed up by the algae!! So it’s a miracle I’ve got this lily at all.
      The pond does freeze over, but not very often and not very deeply – we don’t have any fish in it, just a few mouldy looking plants and a lot of blooming green stuff that I fish out every now and then when it looks like it’s on a takeover bid! It’s also a small pond, and the garden is fairly sheltered with cobbled walls so we miss a lot of the worst weather.
      and I’ve always loved your avatar – so pretty and bright šŸ™‚

  • They are beautiful but can be the death of Florida’s lake and ponds. An overbloom prevents light from getting to water plants bottoms of ponds. They rot and consume the oxygen which results in fisk kill and loss habitat for reptiles and amphibians. Then bamboo and other trees encroach at the shore and soon all the water is gone. It happens with fertilizer and animal waste run off too.

    • Hi Carl, it just shows you how delicate the balance of nature is and our impact on it. A fellow blogger – Big House Small Garden blogs about the Florida waterways and everglades and the impact of farming and fertilisers and of course all the housing developments and golf courses. I had no idea that all that went on to such an extent in Florida.

    • We deliberately chose a red / pink one to help brighten things up, but whatever the colour I always think they are beautiful šŸ™‚

  • So beautiful, how could one look at the final photo and not think “pure perfection” . Thanks for sharing it unfolding. (So very inspiring to see!)

  • Huh, I was SURE I left you a comment on this…
    Anyway, just wanted to echo everyone else – the sequence of the bloom was a wonderful idea. I’d love to have lillies!

  • Really stunning sequence of those gorgeous lilies opening to the sun, Claire! I have a little pond…I think I need a little lily! xo

    • I think you need a lily too!! Look out for a small kind, ours took a while before it flowered, but it was worth the wait šŸ™‚

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