Waterlilies and Lotuses

Species, Cultivars, and New Hybrids

In this fully updated work, Perry Slocum describes nearly 500 species and cultivars of the crowning jewels of water gardens, the waterlilies and lotuses. This book includes more than 130 of the best new hybrids introduced since the landmark Water Gardening: Water Lilies and Lotuses by Perry Slocum and Peter Robinson was published. All species and the major cultivars, including day- and night-blooming tropical and hardy waterlilies and lotuses, are described along with the author's and hybridizers' comments on the best landscape uses for each plant. Although the genera Nymphaea and Nelumbo receive special emphasis, a chapter is also devoted to the other genera in the waterlily family, Nuphar, Victoria, Euryale, Barclaya, and Ondinea. In addition to his achievements as a hybridizer, Slocum is an award-winning nature photographer. Waterlilies and Lotuses is illustrated with 350 stunning color photographs of these exotic beauties, with more than 100 photos published here for the first time. With information on hardiness, including maps for Europe and the United States, and an extensive list of suppliers of water gardening plants and equipment in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, Waterlilies and Lotuses is a truly definitive resource for water gardeners the world over.

Media reviews of this book:

"The book is valuable just for its 325 stunning color photographs, the most helpful and informative way to identify and differentiate the many cultivars of waterlilies and lotus introduced over the years. Add this one to your library and give it a well-positioned place on your bookshelf, since you'll consult it often."

—Greg Speichert, Water Gardening, June 2005

Customer reviews of this book:

"This is one of the finest books I have on waterlilies and lotuses."

—A. L. from Dayton, Tennessee, May 4, 2006

An excerpt from this book:

Most experts now believe that, due to the great differences between rhizomes, flowers, and leaves of lotuses and waterlilies, lotuses should be in a family by themselves, Nelumbonaceae, rather than within the family Nymphaeaceae. Nelumbo lutea is native to the eastern and central United States, and N. nucifera is native to Asia, the Philippines, north Australia, Egypt (probably introduced from India about 500 B.C.), and the Volga River delta at the Caspian Sea. It should be noted that the "blue lotus of the Nile" and the "blue lotus of India" are not lotuses but Nymphaea caerulea and Nymphaea nouchali (syn ...

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