Each summer when the heat and humidity make St. Louis feel like the tropics, giant Amazon Victoria water lilies at the Missouri Botanical Garden seem right at home.
These large lilies, whose pads can grow up to ten feet across in their natural habitat, have been a summer staple at the Garden for more than 100 years. Today, the Garden’s Living Collection includes more than 250 species and cultivars of water lilies large and small.
Big Debut
Less than a decade after its 1859 opening, Horticulturist James Gurney came to the Missouri Botanical Garden from Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in London. At Kew, Gurney learned to cultivate Victoria water lilies. Gurney was present when the plant’s namesake, Queen Victoria, came to visit the first flowering at Kew in 1852.
Thanks to Gurney’s efforts, the Garden first displayed the “Amazon water lilies” in 1894. The Garden hosted a special evening reception to celebrate the occasion. The public could see the water lilies throughout the rest of the season. In 1895, Garden horticulturists grew the water lilies in a special steam-heated pool, and flowers opened throughout the summer and fall.
Garden Director William Trelease credited a one-third increase in crowds to newspaper coverage of the exotic lilies. At the time, the Garden was only open two Sundays out of the year. One Sunday drew a crowd of more than 30,000 people, all hoping to look at the lilies.
Home of the Father of Tropical Water Lilies
In 1906, George Pring, another Kew-trained horticulturist, joined the Garden. Pring served for 63 years and dedicated much of that time to hybridizing tropical water lilies.
Pring, known as the Father of Tropical Water Lilies, developed 47 water lily hybrids during his tenure at the Garden. His hybrids include new colors of tropical water lilies and the first miniature water lilies. Pring developed tropical water lily cultivation techniques still used today. Today, water lily displays around the world feature Pring’s hybrids.
Read more about Pring in the Garden’s Bulletin archives. >
Two of Pring’s hybrids pay tribute to the Garden’s location: Nymphaea ‘St. Louis’ and Nymphaea ‘Missouri.”
Pring hybrids are found in the eastern most pool of the Climatron Axis in the summer. The pool is dedicated to George H. Pring and will always highlight his hybrids.
Water lily Collection today
Today, the Garden is home to an expansive aquatic plant collection. The Garden produces on average 400 aquatic plants a year, including more than 250 different cultivars and species of water lilies. During the summer, the Garden displays up to 10 Victoria water lilies in the outdoor pools.
In addition to the large Victoria’s, the Garden’s collection also includes the smallest water lily in the world, Nymphaea thermarum. Nymphaea thermarum’s lily pads are just 7 to 8 inches in diameter. Its white flowers are less than half an inch across. This little lily, native to Rwanda, was until recently believed to be extinct in the wild. It was recently rediscovered at another nearby location. Rwandan botanists are currently protecting the plant through in situ and ex situ collection.
Life after the pool
Some water lilies from the Garden’s collection get an extended life in the Garden’s Herbarium. An herbarium is a collection of preserved plant specimens that are pressed flat, dried, and glued to special paper with a label.
The Garden’s Herbarium, one of the largest in the world, contains 1,332 water lily specimens collected from all over the world. Among those are dozens of water lilies that once lived in the Garden’s pools. This includes specimens Pring collected, including the type specimen for Nymphaea ‘St. Louis.’ A type specimen is the first plant specimen used to describe a new species.
On paper
The Garden’s Peter H. Raven Library also has water lilies in its collection.. The Library is globally recognized as one of the most comprehensive libraries of botanical literature in the world. This expansive collection includes articles describing new water lily species and hundreds of illustrations of water lilies. One of the earliest illustration in the library comes from Rembert Dodoens’ 1583 History of Plants.
All about Victorias
The Victoria water lilies still seem to draw the most attention due to their enormous size. The name “Victoria water lilies” refers to three species: Victoria amazonica, Victoria cruziana, Victoria boliviana. Cross-pollination creates cultivars like the Victoria ‘Longwood hybrid’.
These large lilies are native to shallow Amazonian waters in tropical South America, where they historically had many practical uses as food and medicine. Called “maíz de agua” or “corn of the water,” its large, starchy seeds were used as flour to make bread and cakes. Its sap was used to dye hair and give it a shine and to cure venomous snake bites.
Bloom Cycle
The lily’s flowers bloom at night and typically last 2 to 3 days. Flowers open white, and then turn pinkish to rose-purple on subsequent days. The flowers also have a unique fragrance similar to a pineapple.
Size and structure
In their natural habitat in the Amazon, lily pads can grow as wide as 10 feet across. Here at the Garden, they usually grow to about 75 inches across. The Garden’s largest lily pad grew to 93 inches in diameter in the summer of 2019. Thanks to heating elements installed in the pool, Victorias can be displayed earlier than the other water lilies, also creating a longer growing season to reach larger diameters.
The underside of the pads, petioles, and surrounding the flowers are covered in thorns. Victorias use these to protect themselves from wildlife, Primarily, they destroy any surrounding vegetation that encroaches on their environment, including other Victoria lilies.
At the end of the growing season, horticulture staff remove the Victorias from the pools and compost them. Come January, new seeds are sown in the Garden’s greenhouses to start the process all over again.
But Can I Stand on them?
Please do not.
Since first introduced to botanical gardens, Victoria water lilies have been an attraction due to the weight they can hold. Historic photos show children and adults standing on the large lily pads.
In more recent years, the Garden placed the Stanley Cup on a Victoria water lily pad following the St. Louis Blues’ victory in 2019. Since 2024, the Garden has participated in Denver Botanical Garden’s Water Lily Weigh off, earning first and second place in the competition.
But, for safety reasons, and for protection of the display, we ask our visitors to admire our water lilies from the ground outside the pool.
Catherine Martin
Senior Public Information Officer
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