Long thought to be impossible, a hardy lavender waterlily was gardening’s holy grail – until 2007...
In the cosy world of gardening, it’s rare something comes along that changes everything. But for lovers of water plants, in the summer of 2007 a Thai farmer would overturn almost 100 years of entrenched dogma with a creation that many thought impossible: a hardy blue waterlily.
With their flawless translucent petals, waterlilies are among the most beautiful of all garden plants. Yet their quirky genetics mean that, unlike most garden favourites, this genus eluded the endeavours of plant breeders until just over a century ago. Right up to the late 1800s the only waterlily available to European gardeners was the white native form. Then a French horticultural genius called Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac cracked a hybridising technique whose results dramatically expanded the options available by mixing in the genes of waterlily species from North America. Pinks, yellows, oranges and reds were the result. It was his waterlilies that inspired Monet, resulting in an explosion in the plant’s popularity.
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