Pink Water Lilies
There are two types of pink water lilies. Ones that have a uniform pink color throughout the flower and ones that are more of a pink and white bicolor. Lilies with a uniform pink color range from a very pale or shell pink to a very deep or hot pink color. Many of the pink and white bicolor lilies come close to being red and white bicolor lilies (come to think of it, it's really more that many red and white bicolor lilies aren't really that red and are closer to a magenta pink color). Thus there's probably a greater diversity of pink lilies than any other color.
'Amabalis'
'Darwin'
'Madame Wilfron Gonnere'
'Miss Siam'
'Pink Sparkle'
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'American Star'
'Fabiola'
'Marliacea Carnea'
'Perry's Fire Opal'
'Ray Davies'
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'Anna Epple'
'Gloire du Temple sur Lot'
'Mary'
'Pink Beauty'
'Shady Lady'
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'Chubby'
'Lily Pons'
'Mayla'
'Pink Sensation'
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'Amabalis'
A large-flowered pink and white bicolor with a star-shaped form. That form isn't unique, but it is uncommon and it has kept 'Amabalis' in my collection despite its infrequent flowering. That and the fact that my mother once mentioned that it was one her favorite lilies.
'American Star'
I tend to stay away from lilies with odorata rhizomes. They simply require too frequent repotting when grown in pots which is how I grow most of my lilies. And they tend not to flower well unless allowed to naturalize. I wanted to try this variety though because of its unique form. The form is indeed unique - perhaps no lily other than 'Hidden Violet' has such long, narrow petals. So far, as I expected, it hasn't produced many flowers, but this picture was taken in it's second season with me and I need to give it a little more time before making a final pronouncement.
'Anna Epple'
A nice enough lily but it's very similar to 'Pink Beauty' and it doesn't flower as well as that variety. I've removed it from my collection.
'Chubby'
I really like the look of white lilies that have enough of a subtle pink blush to be characterized as a "pink" lily. 'Chubby' has very wide petals and a double form as well. It should be one of my favorite lilies. It's not. I'm not sure how to explain why it isn't. The off-white color of the flower, especially older flowers, simply isn't attractive to me. That look isn't captured in any of the pictures shown here. The lily that I favor for a subtle pink blush on a white flower is an old favorite, 'Marliac Carnea.'
'Darwin'
A pale pink bicolor that deepens slightly as it ages. It doesn't have the flower power of 'Fabiola' but it's a classier flower with beautiful color and great, multipetal form. I think I prefer it over 'Madame Wilfron Gonnere' from which Perry Slocum thinks it's derived, though both are simply amongst the most beautiful of pink water lilies. Also known as 'Hollandia'
'Fabiola'
Is this the most prolific flowerer amongst the hardy lilies? Perhaps. This is not a staged picture. This is one plant growing in a 6-gallon container placed in a 15-gallon stock tub - rarely does a lily produce even 3 flowers under these conditions. Not only are there 6 flowers open, there are two more flower buds coming along. The flower is a pale pink bicolor that ages to a slightly deeper pink. The form is a bit loose and floppy, not its most appealing trait, but for sheer flower power 'Fabiola' is tough to beat.
'Gloire du Temple-sur-Lot'
No one knows how Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac created this stupendous lily in 1913 (technically, released by his daughter and son in law Maurice Laydeker - Marliac died in 1914 and 1910 was the last year lilies are credited directly to him rather than the Latour-Marliac Nursery). He did not keep records, or, if he did, he did not release his records to the public. He did not want anyone to be able to copy his success in creating new water lily varieties. For many, many years this was the only polypetalous water lily in existence. Many considered it to be the most beautiful water lily in the world for those many years. It does have a drawback - it doesn't flower very frequently. Grown in a tub - the way we propagate lilies - we rarely see more than a flower or two over the entire summer (more flowers can be obtained by growing the lily in an earthen bottom pond). Yes they are worth the wait - but it would be nice if a lily could be created with a similar flower that was more floriferous. That event happened with Perry Slocum's release of 'Lily Pons' in 1992, followed by his 'White 1000 Petals' in 1998. Both are more floriferous than 'Gloire du Temple-sur-Lot' but still not as free flowering as one would hope.
Flowers of 'Gloire du Temple-sur-Lot' can be pink or can be white - this is quite unusual - I know of no other lilies that do this though the Latour-Marliac Nursery states that there are a handful of lilies that flower in this manner - perhaps they are varieties that they created but are not commercially available.
Flowers of 'Gloire du Temple-sur-Lot' can be pink or can be white - this is quite unusual - I know of no other lilies that do this though the Latour-Marliac Nursery states that there are a handful of lilies that flower in this manner - perhaps they are varieties that they created but are not commercially available.
'Lily Pons'
Here's the aforementioned successor to 'Gloire du Temple-sur-Lot. It's an equally stupendous lily but in a solid pink color rather than the shell pink or white of its parent. It apparently occurred spontaneously in one of Perry Slocum's ponds - he speculates that 'Perry's Fire Opal' is the other parent - presumably he had 'Gloire du Temple-sur-Lot' and 'Perry's Fire Opal' growing near each other and a particularly persistent bee moved some pollen. In polypetalous flowers it can be difficult for a bee to find the reproductive parts of the flower - I would think that hand pollination would be more likely to achieve success, but apparently Slocum was not doing this because his other polypetalous hybrid, 'White 1000 Petals' is also reported by Slocum to be a naturally occurring hybrid.
'Madame Wilfron Gonnere'
Another really beautiful pink and white bicolor. At first it's primarily a white lily with a pink center but the amount of pink increases over the life of the flower until almost all petals have at the least a light pink dusting. It's very similar to 'Darwin' and one of them was destined to be eliminated from my collection. We accidentally sold our stock 'Madame Wilfron Gonnere' one year, so we did not have to make the hard decision on which would be the one to go.
'Marliacea Carnea'
An 1879 Marliac introduction. It's really quite remarkable that some of the very first lilies that Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac created have remained popular to this day and not fallen by the wayside as further improvements were made by hybridization and selective breeding. Marliac's first introduction, 'Chromatella,' in 1877 is still a popular yellow. He followed this with 'Marliacea Albida' and 'Marliacea Carnea' in 1879. 'Marliacea Albida' is a very good white water lily. I had it in my koi pond as a child and it would still be worthy of inclusion in any collection. Instead of that variety I decided to add 'Marliacea Carnea' to my current collection. It's a similar lily but has the added benefit of having a blush pink cast to the flowers instead of the pure white of 'Marliacea Albida.' Some flowers though are almost pure white with almost no pink cast at all. This variation in flower color makes 'Marliacea Carnea' a little more interesting to me.
'Mary'
Perhaps my favorite pink and white bicolor. That may be because I spent a fair bit of time trying to figure out the identity of this really nice bicolor water lily with plum-colored new foliage - I thought I had lost it from my collection for a while then regained it. The details have receded from my memory a little, but I remember having pictures of a bicolor water lily without a name tag. Well there are only what seems like a kazillion bicolor pink/red water lilies in existence - this could be difficult figuring out its identity. To make matters worse the lily didn't seem to be around the nursery any more. Then one year I saw a lily with plum-colored new foliage - that was it!! Waited for it to flower. Yes indeed, a very nice flower that matched my pictures; but I still wasn't sure which variety it was. Thank goodness for Perry Slocum's book. I was probably reading all the descriptions of bicolor lilies in the hope of figuring out my mystery plants identity. Mostly reading the flower descriptions and petal counts. But Perry also describes the leaves of each variety. And under 'Mary' this description: "Top, dark green with plum toward edges, newer leaves deep plum; underside reddish purple." Eureka!! I had sort of forgotten about the leaves, but yes, the new plum-colored foliage was a very striking feature of my mystery plant; some other varieties have dark reddish-colored new leaves, but these plum-colored leaves are quite unique. Looking at other pictures available on the web and petal counts of the flowers provided confirmation. At last I was able to provide my plant with a name!
'Mary' is a Kirk Strawn introduction from 1993. It's free-flowering - I wish it flowered a little more heavily, but as you can see from the pictures, this plant's flowers are well worth the wait. You can see the plum-colored new foliage as well in the background of quite a few of the pictures.
'Mary' is a Kirk Strawn introduction from 1993. It's free-flowering - I wish it flowered a little more heavily, but as you can see from the pictures, this plant's flowers are well worth the wait. You can see the plum-colored new foliage as well in the background of quite a few of the pictures.
'Mayla'
Another Kirk Strawn introduction. Few lilies can match 'Mayla' for its deep pink color. It has an odorata rhizome and, not surprisingly, it doesn't flower well for us in our stock tub. The flowers can also be smaller in the tub than they would be in an earthen bottom pond. So it can be a bit of a tough sell for us when customers can't see the variety in all its glory. For a large container or earthen bottom pond 'Mayla' is a great choice.
'Miss Siam'
New for us in 2020. We obtained this lily as a possible replacement for 'Mayla.' Though 'Mayla' has spectacular color it also has a vigorous odorata rhizome and is hard for us to manage in tubs. It tends to diminish in flower size as the tub gets crowded. The first couple of flowers of 'Miss Siam' look like they will be as spectacular in color as 'Mayla' - hopefully it will perform better for us in tubs.
'Perry's Fire Opal'
This very double, very colorful lily also has an odorata rhizome, but unlike 'Mayla' it's well known to perform well in tub culture. Here's how Perry Slocum describes it: "...one of the very best odorata waterlilies for the tub garden or small pool; it can also be used in medium and large pools. It blooms quite well in a restricted area, and its flower color is wonderful. Flowers are ver double and often nearly as large as the leaves." We can certainly vouch for Perry's assessment - as you can see from the pictures 'Perry's Fire Opal' will often have multiple flowers open at one time even in the confines of our stock tubs. Give it a little more room and it will put on quite the show!
'Pink Beauty'
For me, this is the quintessential pink water lily. The color is pure pink and that color is uniformly distributed throughout the flower. Most pure pink lilies have odorata rhizomes and do best in large containers or earthen bottom ponds - 'Pink Beauty' though has a Marliac rhizome - it grows really well in a small to medium pond or in tubs. Even though it has a Marliac rhizome and was introduced in 1899, it's not a Marliac creation (indeed Marliac never was able to produce a really good pure pink lily - his pinks tend to be pink and white bicolors). Instead it was created at Dreer Nurseries in New Jersey. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it's extremely free flowering. Just like many of Marliac's creations, 'Pink Beauty' remains one of the best and most popular pink lilies more than a century after its debut.
'Pink Sensation'
Here's another pure pink water lily with a Marliac rhizome - this one from Perry Slocum who considers it "the very best pink hardy for any size pool" ... with flowers that "stay open very late in the afternoon, later than those of any other pink hardy." It's one of his earliest lily introductions - from 1947 - indeed it was preceded only by 'Pearl of the Pool' (1946). Like many of Marliac's earliest creations this lily continues to be popular decades after its introduction because of its reliable performance and beauty. The flowers are more stellate in form than 'Pink Beauty.' The other striking feature of 'Pink Sensation' is its very red new foliage - it can be identified on this trait even when the plant is out of flower.
'Pink Sparkle'
Although the subtle pink color isn't "knock your socks off" we like this Kirk Strawn lily for its perfect stellate form, compact growth habit suitable for tub culture or growing in a small to medium pool, and free-flowering nature. It's similar to 'Joanne Pring' a variety we grew for many, many years - but better: a fuller flower with longer petals and more open, stellate form. We now grow 'Pink Sparkle' instead of 'Joanne Pring.'
'Ray Davies'
A 1985 introduction from Perry Slocum. It's a very nice double pink lily - Slocum in 2005 described it as one the most beautiful lilies in the world - but it has an odorata rhizome and it didn't flower well for us. We've removed it from the collection, but in an earthen bottom pond it would probably perform better.
'Shady Lady'
There are a fair number of varieties of dwarf pink lily - we grew 'Joanne Pring' for years in a half-whiskey barrel - but most have few petals - really not a full form at all. 'Shady Lady has more petals and a very nice partly double form with very good color. We liked it. Problem is that one year our plant simply stopped flowering. Gave it a year. It didn't flower the next year either. Fertilized it. Divided it and potted it in new soil. Made sure it was in full sun. Nothing worked. I have seen this behavior before with some other lilies. They simply refuse to flower. I've never seen much written about from any water lily expert. It's a bit baffling, but what are you going to do? We found someone who had remembered 'Shady Lady' from our nursery in a prior year and wanted it - we gave it to him. Never did hear how it worked out for him, whether it ever started flowering again. One of these years we'll get around to trialing it again.