2002 Waterlily Competition Winners

2002 New Waterlily Competition

Our annual competition seeks to recognise the work of living Nymphaea hybridizers and introducers, and to make new cultivars more widely known and grown. The  lilies are judged by symposium attendees whose critical eyes seek out major merits and faults in lilies more effectively than most folk. The categories being judged are general health, foliage and flower. Both hardy and tropical lilies can be entered in size categories dwarf, small, medium and large.

The competition was held in a specially prepared greenhouse tunnel at Hughes Water Gardens and our thanks go to them and their staff member Dave for their cooperation in staging the display. Twenty entries were on show for us to judge, the majority blooming well.

All the scores were tallied and counted in time for the awards to be made at the Hall of Fame Banquet. The overall quality of the tropicals was once again very high this year. This was reflected in the scoring with eight tropicals and one hardy in the top 10% of the marking range. The highest scoring lily receives the IWGS Best in Show award and the Royal Horticultural Society’s prestigious Banksian Medal, awarded on behalf of the RHS by the IWGS, which is an affiliate society to the RHS.

There was no entry for a small/dwarf tropical lily.

Thanks to all those who took part, to those who helped the competition take place, and to Sean Stevens and Laura Grant for taking pictures.

2002 Best in Show & Banksian Award Waterlily

Nymphaea ‘Chaz’
by Charleston Aquatic Nurseries

2002 Best Medium-Large Hardy Waterlily

2002 Best Medium-Large Tropical Waterlily

2002 Best Dwarf-Small Hardy Waterlily