Best News Network

If you’ve got a pond, get one of Australia’s best and rarest water lilies

One of the most famous Australian plant breeders you’ve never heard of is water lily man Charles Winch. Winch developed 600 different hybrids over a lifetime’s work and named 200 of them. While his work is largely unrecognised in Australia, a pond in the New Orleans Botanical Garden is dedicated to the Winch Collection.

Young Charlie Winch fell for water lilies as a 10-year-old when he met ‘Albida’, a classical white lily that was developed by Claude Monet’s go-to lily man, Bory Latour-Marliac. Charlie was hooked and spent the next decade or so dotting his family’s Sydney backyard with cement ponds to house his growing collection.

Nymphaea White Delight at Austal Watergardens.

Nymphaea White Delight at Austal Watergardens.

World War II stalled the obsession, but when he returned to Sydney, Winch became a full-time aquatic nurseryman, dedicated to breeding goldfish and aquatic plants, especially water lilies.

The best place to see Winch water lilies right now is at Austral Watergardens at Cowan, even though the fire that swept through the nursery in 2003 incinerated much of the Winch collection, among other treasures.

After a cool spring, the water lilies and lotus at Austral are in full bloom. Kevin Metelik, who runs the nursery set up by his grandfather and expanded by his mother, remembers visiting Charlie with his mum. “He was a lovely old man, and a fantastic hybridiser of water lilies, especially tropical water lilies.”

Nymphaea Charlies Pride at Austal Watergardens.

Nymphaea Charlies Pride at Austal Watergardens.

Tropical water lilies are the ones you may have seen growing wild in Kakadu or the Noosa Everglades, or in Thailand. The purple-toned flowers are held on long stems above the water, and are powerfully fragrant. Hardy water lilies, on the other hand, sit on the surface of the water, survive cold winters and flower earlier in the summer than the tropicals. Of the Winch water lilies growing at Austral, Metelik admires ‘White Delight’, rich blue ‘Billabong’ and multi-petalled lilac ‘Mark Pullen’.

Loading

Anyone with a pond, or a large tub of water in the sunshine can grow a water lily. In Sydney, the tropicals are stand-outs with masses of long-stemmed fragrant flowers that last well in a vase. In cooler climates the hardy water lilies are a better choice. Both will die down completely in winter, and the tropicals will wait until the water is warm before they come back to life. While a dormant water lily looks like a pot of mud, don’t despair, they are not dead, just waiting for friendlier conditions.

Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our  Twitter, & Facebook

We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.

For all the latest Life Style News Click Here 

 For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! NewsAzi is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.