Introducing Waterlilies
| Waterlilies are considered by most gardeners to be the most important plants in the garden pond. Certainly from the point of view of a floral display, they are essential, but they also contribute to the general well-being of the pond environment. Their floating foliage shades the surface of the water providing welcome shade for the fish on a hot summer day. By reducing the amount of light that falls directly into the water, they also help to control green water discolouring algae.
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 Waterlilies are the most important decorative aquatic plants.
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| This requires full light in order to prosper. There are two main categories of waterlilies. The hardy kinds that are all day-blooming and frost-hardy, and the tropical species and cultivars which are frost-tender and available as either day or night blooming. There are innumerable shapes and sizes, with cultivars that can be grown as little as 15-20cms of water in a small container to giants of the lake that require 2m of water in order to prosper. They have a spread from as little as 20cm to as much as 5-6m. Amongst the hardy kinds there are flowers of almost every hue except blue.
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 Some waterlilies can be grown in a small tub or container.
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This colour is the sole prerogative of the tropical waterlilies. Some flowers are star-shaped, others cup-shaped and a number are fully double and of similar appearance to an autumn-flowering chrysanthemum. A few have blossoms of a strong vanilla or aniseed scent while others appear to be totally devoid of fragrance.
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| The leaves also vary in shape and size, but most are plain green, or else are green and have chocolate or maroon mottling. Hardy waterlilies grow mostly from a fleshy creeping and spreading rootstock, whereas tropicals arise mostly from rounded tubers, not unlike large chestnuts or small potatoes. Hardy waterlilies produce "eyes" or latent shoots that are used for propagation purposes.
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 Blue is a colour only found in tropical waterlilies.
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 The tiny Nymphaea tetragona is raised from seed.
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Tropical kinds on the other hand, multiply from small tubers, or sometimes viviparously - small plantlets appearing from their leaves. These can be readily used from propagation purposes. Seed is not a common form of reproduction amongst hardy waterlilies, except in the case of the tiny Nymphaea tetragona and its forms. However some tropical kinds are freely reproduced from seed.
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