The International Waterlily & Water Gardening Society (IWGS) recently announced the winner of their Collector’s Aquatic Plants of the Year (CAPY) for 2011: Nymphaea ‘Wanvisa’
This hardy water lily boasts salmon pink to peach colored flowers with flecks of cream to pale yellow accents. While the leaves display a marbled appearance. “This beautiful plant was a standout in the display ponds at Duke Gardens this summer and is sure to become a perennial favorite in water gardens around the world,” said Tamara Kilbane, the horticulturist at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens in Durham, North Carolina who curates the New Waterlily Competition for the IWGS each year.
Wanvisa’s story of recognition was nearly bypassed entirely because it was viewed as an abnormality in a cultivated water lily field in Thailand. Growing among Nymphaea ‘Joey Tomocik’, a vibrant yellow hardy water lily, the water lily nursery owner was concerned it would contaminate her prized N. ‘Joey Tomocik’. But Dr. N. Nopchai Chansilpa immediately recognized there was something extraordinary about this plant. Dr. Chansilpa is a water lily hybridizer, aquatic plant enthusiast, and plant pathologist who lives and works in Thailand. His N. ‘Mangkala Ubol’ won 1st Place in the hardy water lily category in the 2004 New Waterlily Competition.
To purchase or find out more information about this water lily, visit the IWGS website: http://www.iwgs.org/2011-CAPY-Purchasing.html
