Nymphea nirvana
The waterlilies went into their final home last spring, the big pond. They established and produced flowers all last summer. This year they awoke slowly in the cold wet spring (I don’t think they noticed the wet weather, just the lack of sun and warmth) but now we have had some heat (too much for me) and because, unlike the rest of the garden, they are not short of water, they are doing well.
And yesterday was a special day, when all eight (different) waterlilies had a flower open the same day for the first time. The white one, which was actually the most expensive and, characteristically, took the longest to settle down, actually had two flowers.
I am not sure why, it must be my need for organisation, but I put them in so the white and yellow are at one end and the pinks and reds at the other, with graduations in between.
I think that waterlilies have some of the most beautiful of all flowers. It may be something to do with the reason why lotus and waterlilies are so sacred in some cultures, because their perfect, pristine blooms emerge from foetid mud.
I would like them to grow a bit faster and cover more of the water but there is a compensation because, at present, with lots of ‘open’ water the swallows skim across the water to drink and I would miss that if the leaves covered too much water surface. The heat has brought out the dragonflies too and they are busy guarding the ponds and laying eggs under the lily leaves.
One of the smaller ponds has no lilies and just water iris, their leaves emerging from the water specially for the dragonflies, and there are no fish. The bottom pond had one fish left after the heron visited periodically last year, though I think that too has gone, and it has more ‘wild’ planting to suit wildlife and the two waterlilies that were left in here, their nursery pond, are happy and blooming well.
Unfortunately the variegated aralia I mentioned the other day looks worse and the last leaf has dropped, with a look of despondency, to the ground. I think it is time for some sort of ceremony.
The Biking Gardener 
Hi Geoff
Beautiful Water Lilies – great photos.
Regards Anne
thank you
Ours disappeared prior to the floods last winter. I could not figure it out. I thought that they might have died back after an earlier frost, but they do not die back in cooler climates. I had been watching for new foliage for a while, . . . but then noticed a turtle instead. I can not help but wonder if that is what happened to them.
perhaps the root/tubers are edible for somthing
There is not much vegetation that the native turtles will not eat.
Your lovely post makes me yearn for a pond…
it is a hassle making a pond but it it worth it in the end
Definitely worth it…🌸
A beautiful selection.
Super