PlantFiles: Amazon Water Lily, Royal Waterlily
Victoria amazonica

These are grown and displayed at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville FL by the director, Don Goodman. They are started each year from seed that is collected from the previous year. Last year we had one which was over 7 feet across and broke the record for North America that had been set in the late 1890s. They are truly magnificent. Although it has been suggested that they will support a small child, this idea unfortunately comes from a publicity photo created at Kanapaha many years ago by placing a piece of plywood onto the pad that spread the weight of the little girl. This is described on the Kanapaha website. The pads will not support a child but little blue herons and other birds have been seen to stand on them.

I absolutely loved this plant. Because of my pond size I put the water lily in a 3' pond liner tub as a pot and then sank the entire tub in my pond. The size of this pot contained the plant so that each leaf only reach 36"-45" instead of the normal 6' leaf. With 7-8 leaves the plant spread out in the pond about 8'-9'.

This plant is so interesting. It blooms white the first night and then once pollinated it closes and when it opens the second night it is the most gorgeous pink.