2017 Waterlily Competition Winners

2017 IWGS New Waterlily Competition

2017 is the 2nd year for the IWGS New Waterlily Competition to be held at it’s new home – Longwood Gardens (Kennett Square, PA). The entries were submitted from hybridizers worldwide to compete in three categories; Hardy, Intersubgeneric (ISG) and Tropical. In addition to those categories there is a ‘Best Overall Award’. It is also special year where, as part of the 2017 IWGS Symposium, the attendees were able to visit Longwood Gardens to view these waterlily entries in an area outside the public view. The attendees were asked to vote as part of a ‘2017 IWGS People’s Choice Award’ which is also noted below.

All the entries were grown under the supervision of Senior Gardener, Tim Jennings at Longwood Gardens. A total of 27 entries across the three categories reached blooming size in time to be judged during late-October/early November.

THE JUDGES

The judging panel this year consisted of 12 experienced growers and industry experts from around the world (alphabetical order):

• Brian Galligan (Naples Botanical Garden, USA)
• Farley See (Moore Water Gardens, Canada)
• Iain MacGregor (Water Garden Life, Australia)
• James Allison (Aquapic, UK)
• James Bennett (Bennetts Water Gardens, UK)
• John Loggins (Lone Star Aquatic Nursery, USA)
• Mark Wilson (Any Pond Limited, UK)
• Paula Biles (About The Lotus, USA)
• Rich Sacher (American Aquatic Gardens, USA)
• Richard Gallehawk (Dorset Water Lily Co, UK)
• Rolf Nelson (Nelson Water Gardens, USA)
• Séverine Lyssens-Danneboom (Agua, Belgium)

THE WINNERS

The votes have been counted and the results for the 2017 IWGS New Waterlily Competition winners are listed below:

 

2017 IWGS Best Overall New Waterlily:

Nymphaea ‘Jakkaphong’

by Jakkaphong Sung-ngam (Thailand)

 

2017 IWGS Best New Hardy Waterlily

2017 IWGS Best New Tropical Waterlily

2017 IWGS Best New Intersubgeneric (ISG) Waterlily

The 2017 IWGS Symposium attendees voted for their favorite entries during their visit to Longwood Gardens. The votes has been counted, and the resulting winners are a tie of two winners:

2017 IWGS People’s Choice Award

We would like to thank Tim Jennings, Longwood Gardens for their support in hosting the IWGS New Waterlily Competition on-site and Olivia Fow (Intern – Display Design at Longwood Gardens) for her photography work on all the waterlilies above. We would also like to thank the judges for their time, support and contribution to this competition. The IWGS New Waterlily Competition committee members will now begin preparation for the 2018 IWGS New Waterlily Competition. Looking forward to a lot of exciting new hybrids in the year ahead.