2019 New Waterlily Competition
2019 marks the start of a new location for growing the IWGS New Waterlily Competition entries. This year the entries were grown at Naples Botanical Garden (Naples Florida, USA). A total of 21 entries were submitted from around the world by waterlily hybridizers across these three categories: Hardy, Tropical and Mixed Class (Other).
The entries were grown under the supervision of Aquatic Area’s Specialist at Naples Botanical Garden, Danny Cox.
The 2019 judging panel consisted of 12 judges across different countries with expertise ranging from private collectors, hybridizers, nursery plant growers and botanic garden aquatic plant growers.
The 2019 Judges (in alphabetical order)
The judging panel this year consisted of 12 experienced growers and industry experts from around the world (alphabetical order):
- Dave Brigante (Hughes Water Gardens, USA)
- James Allison (Aquapic, UK)
- James Bennett (Bennetts Water Gardens, UK)
- James Knock (Water Garden Plants, UK)
- Joe Summers (Chalily, USA)
- John Loggins (Lone Star Aquatic Nursery, USA)
- Nopchai Chansilpa (hybridizer, Thailand)
- Richard Gallehawk (Dorset Water Lily Co, UK)
- Sander Dekker (The Netherlands)
- Séverine Lyssens-Danneboom (Agua, Belgium)
- Tim Jennings (Longwood Gardens, USA)
- Tomas Escribano (Spain)
THE WINNERS
The votes have been counted and the results for the 2019 IWGS New Waterlily Competition winners are listed below:
Nymphaea ‘KEY WEST’
by Florida Aquatic Nurseries (USA)
2019 IWGS BEST NEW HARDY WATERLILY

1st Place Hardy Waterlily
Nymphaea ‘Bangkok Marble’
by Jakkaphong Sangngam
(Thailand)

2nd Place Hardy Waterlily
Nymphaea ‘A. Tongkam’
by Pattanan Ganjanapas
(Thailand)

3rd Place Hardy Waterlily
Nymphaea ‘Nongbualampu’
By Pornchai Sukkasemsamranjit
(Thailand)
2019 IWGS BEST NEW TROPICAL WATERLILY

1st Place Tropical Waterlily
Nymphaea ‘Key West’
By Florida Aquatic Nurseries
(USA)

2nd Place Tropical Waterlily
Nymphaea ‘Purple Passion’
By Florida Aquatic Nurseries
(USA)

3rd Place Tropical Waterlily
Nymphaea ‘Peppermint Splash’
By Florida Aquatic Nurseries
(USA)
2019 IWGS BEST NEW MIXED CLASS WATERLILY

1st Place Mixed Class Waterlily
Nymphaea ‘Red Blue Ocean’
By Pornchai Sukkasemsamranjit
(Thailand)

2nd Place Mixed Class Waterlily
Nymphaea ‘Confeito’
By Zijun Li
(China)

3rd Place Mixed Class Waterlily
Nymphaea ‘Cherry Boom Boom’
By Zijun Li
(China)
We would like to thank Danny Cox and Naples Botanical Garden for their support in hosting the IWGS New Waterlily Competition on-site and Mary Dominguez (Naples Botanical Garden) for doing the 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 2020 IWGS New Waterlily Competition. Looking forward to a lot of exciting new hybrids in the year ahead.