Monday, August 2, 2010

Hughes Water Gardens.... Waterlily Festival

For reasons that had nothing to do with waterlilies (more duckweed for the pond, the fish are eating the stuff like it grows on trees!) I found myself at Hughes Water Gardens last week. Of course I had completely forgotten about their Annual Waterlily Festival and was taken by surprise. First I came upon these gorgeous lotus flowers. I love their leaves, kind of like giant nasturtiums.
Wow. The Victoria and Tropical waterlilies were amazing! The flowers were few and far between, most are night bloomers, but who cares when you have leaves like this?...
Someone (hopefully an employee) had pulled a couple leaves from the water and had them lying where you could inspect their undersides.
Pretty amazing network.
They had these pictures tacked on the info-board near the green house entrance, shows you just how strong these monster leaves are.
The place was crawling with photographers and it was a Tuesday afternoon! (I wonder what it was like on the weekend) Everyone had tripods and ultra fancy cameras. You should have seen them stare at me in disbelief when I pulled out my point-&-shoot camera out to snap a few images!
I wanted to take a picture of them all jockeying for the perfect place to capture the perfect picture. But after all it was a Tuesday afternoon and I figure at least one of them had called in sick to be there. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for publicizing their real reason for missing work, I waited for the crowd to clear and snapped this last shot.

7 comments:

  1. I've always wanted a white lotus, but I fear it's too hot and dry in Zone 9 US. The best part of your post are the pictures of the Amozon lily, but I bet I could sink it! I loved that you were careful not to photograph undercover visitors who might be calling in sick. Thoughtful!

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  2. The fishes'-eye view of the pads is really amazing. The little spiney bits under the leaves are interesting too--maybe it keeps the fishes from nibbling? I have a pretty big pond by residential standards but I'm afraid it'd barely accommodate just one of these monster leaves. I guess I'll have to settle for duckweed and pond scum...

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  3. The texture and strength of the leaves is amazing. I have never seen these before and glad you posted. BTW, the flowers are pretty as well. I was just so taken by the architecture of the leaves. Seeing the child being supported, nature at it's finest for sure.

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  4. I could never get tired of those leaves. Some day I'm going to need a huge pond of my own. Nice photos with that point and shoot.
    There used to be a water garden shop in town, off Powell Blvd, 15th or so. They had a huge koi pond, it was paradise as soon as you stepped off the busy street. That would have been convenient for frequent duckweed stocking trips. Sadly one day I stopped by for a visit and it was all gone.

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  5. Gorgeous lotus flowers and lily pads! I had no idea they were so strong.

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  6. Weeping Sore, thank you, I would like to think that I kept at least one person from being caught.

    James, I bet you're right about the spiky bits. Duckweed and Pond Scum...you know that was the name of my first band...

    Donna, aren't they amazing!?

    Megan, bummer about that shop closing. There is another nursery here in town that has a TON of duckweed growing in their aquatic plant section but, they won't sell it. This upset me. Seriously. I have money to give you and you aren't going to take it simply because you don't know what to charge me?

    myimaginarygarden, I wish I had room for one (or 3) in my tiny little pond.

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  7. Absolutely beautiful. I love the shape of water lily pads. The center of the flowers are so amazing also. And I think your photos are wonderful. I take most of my pictures with a point and shoot. I just don't understand all the shutter speed and fancy stuff. You can take just as great photos with a point and shoot as you can with a fancy DSLR. You do need a good point and shoot though.

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