Water Lily

It must be the spell of wet warm weather we are having that has my water lilies looking absolutely superb this year! When we created the pond we planted a pond lily in the deep end, a Charles de Meurville lily. Only one as it’s only a little pond. It’s good hardy water-lily that will withstand the cold winter weather and yet love the sun. The first few years we mainly had lily pads, by the 3rd year we had and actual flower but it never opened up fully. This year we are blessed with some spectacular flower shows.

Water lilies – Nymphaea

Water lilies (Nymphaea from  the Greek word for nymph in Greek mythology) come in many varieties. Personally I love The Charles de Meurville lily which has beautiful large blooms about 6-7″ when fully opened and blooming in the day, closing up at night. The petals are dark pinkish red on the inner petals fading to almost white on the outside as you see on the photo included in this post. The leaves of the lily are big, dark green with a spread of about 4-5″. In our pond the water-lily leaves provides shelter a well as a  shelf for various wildlife to rest on, like the damsel fly and the numerous frogs that inhabit our pond as well as keeping the pond water clear as they act as good filters and absorb the toxins in the water, as well a the flowers providing a wonderful splash of colour in the summer.

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