DAILY NZ P A G E 12E COLOR
12E
State
Water lily
collection
among
the best
CONTINUED FROM 1E
ing to the thriving plants and un-
derscoring his defiant nature. “It
took me two years to get ’em up,
but they are up.”
The plants, which he describes
as temperamental, like 90-degree
water and little movement in the
water. Landon grew the tubers
last year, overwintered them and
then grew the plants this year.
“To see this flower blooming
here, to John Q. Public it doesn’t
mean anything,” he says. “For a
botanist or botanical enthusiast
or water lily expert, it’s meaning-
ful.”
Nutt, who describes as “a pil-
grimage” his visit to West Texas
from the 1,000-acre garden in
Pennsylvania created by Pierre
duPont, says Landon “probably
has one of the finest displays of
water lilies in the world.”
While he concentrates on cre-
ating hybrids, he also is intent
on preserving the species. A dec-
ade ago, Landon founded the In-
ternational Waterlily Preserva-
tion Repository, through which
he collects specimens and shares
seeds.
When flooding on the Nile
River threatened the sacred blue
lily of the Nile (N. caerulea),
Egyptian officials called Landon
and came here to get 2 million
seeds to restart the plant. Of the
large order, Landon says, “It’s
not hard to do because each seed
pod has 60,000 to 70,000 seeds.”
Landon treks to jungles and
remote locales in search of rare
specimens, and he relates stories
of hopscotching across an alliga-
tor’s head (he thought it was a
rock until its mouth opened) and
other harrowing adventures to
get his hands on seldom-seen aq-
uatic plants.
“The gene pool is going away,”
he says of the genus that is
threatened by flooding, swamp
draining for development and en-
croaching populations in third-
world countries. “They’re not
worried about lilies, they’re wor-
ried about surviving,” he says.
Efforts to wipe out invasive spe-
cies such as water hyacinth
sometimes wipe out noninvasive
nymphaeas, and hybrids also
take over established species.
Landon worries that future
generations won’t know the
plants he knows. But he’s trying
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DAILY NZ
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
to perpetuate the species.
“His focus is to preserve . . .
Nymphaea from all around the
world, not just Texas, not just the
South, not just the United States,
but the entire world, which is a
pretty awesome task,” says Paula
Biles, executive director of the
International Waterlily and Wa-
ter Gardening Society based in
Bradenton, Fla.
From two seedlings of Nym-
phaea gigantea, a species native
to Australia, Landon created
‘Blue Cloud,’ a lavender-blue
flower. “We have it in the pool at
Longwood,” Nutt says of the hy-
brid. “It’s our pride and joy.”
Visitors to the West Texas
park can see giganteas blooming
in their entire color range —
pink, blue and white. Often, gar-
den guests from Australia have
never seen a single variety of the
plant in their homeland, Nutt
says.
Landon notes the park display
represents only about 1 percent
of his plant family, which he says
is the largest collection of the ge-
nus Nymphaea in the world. He
grows the plants in a greenhouse
in Miles, about 20 miles north-
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P A G E 12E COLOR
P U B D A T E 08-05-06 O P E R A T O R KMUNOZ D A T E // TIME:
SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 2006 / * * * /
D
State
LILY FEST
What: Celebration of
A C C EN T ON HOME
the International
Waterlily Collection.
Tour the collection and
It’s a spoof, but its designs
see the latest hybrids
are within reach of most
developed by
horticulturist Ken
Landon.
BY LINDA HALES
WASHINGTON POST
DWR) can be fabricated with a
clock mechanism, the circular
When: 9 a.m.-noon end of a cardboard salt container
Sept. 16. Landon will
lead a tour at 11 a.m.
The furnishing emporium De-
sign Within Reach offers an envi-
able stock of modern classics by
and 12 colorful Tootsie Roll Pops
inserted around the edge.
You get what you pay for, but
Where: Civic League catalog, online and in stores. But the homemade aesthetic is part
Park, San Angelo. to some shoppers, prices remain of the exercise.
Located on North Park inaccessible. That’s what sparked The replicas were dreamed up
Street between Harris the spoof: Design Without Reach. by Rob Price, a 27-year-old gradu-
and Beauregard “Not everyone can afford to be ate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
avenues. patrons of modern design,” ex- He designs Cuisinart and
plains the Web site Thwart KitchenAid housewares by day
Admission: Free. design.com, which offers instruc- and saves “raw creativity” for
Info: (325) 657-4279 tions for making replicas — in home. Price says he built each of
or SanAngeloTexas.org. minutes and for pennies. the replicas. The clock had to
Impoverished fans of Alessi’s come down after the Tootsie Roll
$85 crumpled stainless-steel fruit Pops melted on his wall.
PATRICK DOVE/SPECIAL TO THE EXPRESS-NEWS bowl can crumple their own con- However one decides to allo-
tainer from a sheet of aluminum cate cash for flash, Thwart De-
ABOVE: A flower of ‘Ineta Ruth’ foil. An homage to George Nel- sign’s manifesto emphasizes:
rises above a pond at the Interna- son’s iconic Ball clock ($285 at “Don’t let creativity lie dormant.”
tional Waterlily Collection. Ken
Landon, who developed it,
named the plant for his mother.
LEFT: A bee hovers over a flower
UNPAINTED FURNITURE CO.
of Nymphaea ‘Blue Cloud.’ Selection Quality & Service for Over 25 Years
tographers have come calling to BE ORGANIZED THIS
document rare species.
And if this is an unlikely loca- SCHOOL YEAR!
tion for a world-class water gar-
den, Landon is an unlikely gar- Large Selection
dener. Trained as an industrial Starting at $199
engineer with a minor in botany,
his love for water lilies began Mon - Sat 10 - 6 • Sun 12 - 5
when he was a teen building a
pond in Albuquerque, N.M. After 824-7249 ❖ 6842 San Pedro
TRACY HOBSON LEHMANN/STAFF a bit of searching, he found a re-
east of here and at gardens tailer who ordered an aquatic
around the world.
While this semiarid region,
plant for him.
That plant died when the fam- S U M M E R
with an annual rainfall average
of 18 inches, seems an improba-
ily moved to Fort Worth in the
1960s, but Landon’s mother spot- CLOSEOUT SALE!
ble place to establish a world- ted a newspaper story about a
class water lily garden, Landon woman selling water lilies, and
settled here to be near family. In Landon began digging a pond.
1988, he took over a pond built in He overnighted his new plant in
the 1930s as a reflective pool in a the garage before the pool was
Works Progress Administration complete and was smitten by the
project, and with the support of sweet fragrance of the flower that
the local Council of Garden greeted him the next morning.
Clubs transformed the muddy “I was hooked,” he recalls.
mess into what is now the main Landon’s work has earned
pond. Five smaller ponds sur- him a spot in the International
round the center pool, and Water Gardening Society Hall of
there’s room for one more that Fame. That, however, isn’t what
will be built as funding allows. he views as his greatest claim to
Landon says he has turned down fame.
potentially lucrative offers to re- Landon also finds time to in- Limited Time Only!
locate the collection. He owns all dulge his passion for pyrotech- Italian Porcelain Tile Ceramic Tile
the plants, and the city pays his nics. He received a call from the *
salary as curator.
Guests, with cameras clicking,
White House to supply strobe
star fireworks for President Rea- .99 * Sq. 18"x18" .59 *
Ft. 16"x16"
Sq. Ft.
wander the labyrinth of side- gan’s second inauguration.
walks among the pools. Some fo- Locals, in fact, know Landon
cus their lenses on the flowers. as well for his annual Fourth of
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P U B D A T E 08-05-06 O P E R A T O R KMUNOZ D A T E // TIME: