Water Lily Hunting

My obsession lately has been water lilies.  A rather expensive prospect since the only place to purchase them at this time of year is the local garden store, Tagawa Gardens specifically.  And they have a varying selection depending on the phase of the moon and the whims of people.  Transit from the store to the house involves wrapping the plant in a plastic garbage bag.  The flowers tend not to survive :(

A couple of weeks ago I struck on the idea of cutting the flowers off of the plants before transport.  Talking the garden store into letting me cut the flowers off the plant and float them in a plastic bucket before leaving took some doing.  My first little experiment turned out so well that I've been looking for additional plants since, to no avail. 

My friendly local florist can get them as a cut flower but only February - April, strike 2. 

 

Yesterday, at the garden store and coming up empty yet again, I got frustrated and started looking for other sources for water lilies. A sign for the Rocky Mountain Koi Club prompted me to check their website for sponsors.  And enter Enery Water Gardens. 

An hour drive up to Arvada yielded four choice water lilies and a lotus.  And of course happy happy koi fish that couldn't come home with me because Cleo would have sushi.

The lilies made the trip home just fine but they looked so lonely in their half barrels of water.  So onward to to purchase a kiddie pool.  LOL.  

They're much happier now.

visit Samantha Byrnes' gallery online...