2020 New Waterlily Competition Winners

2020 IWGS New Waterlily Competition

What an interesting year 2020 has been. This is the second year that the IWGS New Waterlily Competition has been held at Naples Botanical Garden (Naples Florida, USA). Due to the unfortunate situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 IWGS Symposium in Naples (Florida, USA) did not take place and we did not get the opportunity to showcase the competition waterlilies for symposium attendees.

A total of 21 entries from waterlily hybridizers around the world successfully made it across to Naples Botanical Gardens amidst the hurdles of the COVID-19 lockdowns and worldwide freight interruptions. The competition was able to proceed with the entries grown under the supervision of Aquatic Areas Manager – Danny Cox at Naples Botanical Garden.

This year we have expanded the categories to: Hardy, Tropical Dayblooming, Tropical Nightblooming, Hardy ISG and Tropical ISG waterlilies. We have also limited the entries to one entry per hybridizer, which allowed for a larger number of participants in this year’s competition. Please note that some categories do not have a second or third place winner awarded, due to limited entries.

THE JUDGES

The 2020 judging panel consisted of 16 judges across different countries with diverse expertise covering the areas of waterlily hybridizers, commercial plant growers, botanic garden aquatic plant growers and private waterlily collectors. The judges, listed in alphabetical order, are:

• CuiWei Yu (Zhejiang Humanities Landscape Co Ltd, China)
• Dave Brigante (Hughes Water Gardens, USA)
• Gianluca Bonomo (Piante d’Acqua, Italy)
• Iain MacGregor (Water Garden Life, Australia)
• James Allison (Aquapic, UK)
• James Knock (hybridiser, UK)
• Javier Tarillo Egner (Vivero Acuático Naturalia, Argentina)
• Joe Summers (Chalily, USA)
• John Loggins (Lone Star Aquatic Nursery, USA)
• Julien Baussay (Pepinieres de l’eau – Les filles du vent, France)
• Larry Nau (Bergen Water Gardens, USA)
• 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 2020 IWGS New Waterlily Competition winners are listed below:

2020 IWGS Best Overall New Waterlily:

Nymphaea ‘Puttaraksa‘

by Pairote Thongnum (Thailand)

2020 IWGS Best New Hardy Waterlily

2020 IWGS Best New Tropical Day Blooming Waterlily

2020 IWGS Best New Tropical Night Blooming Waterlily

2020 IWGS Best New Hardy Intersubgeneric (ISG) Waterlily

2020 Best New Tropical Intersubgeneric (ISG) Waterlily

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We would like to take this opportunity to say “Thank you” to:

• Danny Cox and Naples Botanical Garden for their support in hosting the IWGS New Waterlily Competition on-site.
• All the judges for the time that they had volunteered, their support and contribution to this competition.
• All the participants (hybridizers) of the competition.
• Everyone who has donated to the IWGS for the competition.

Without the above, the new waterlily competition would not have been able to proceed. The IWGS New Waterlily Competition committee members will now commence preparation work for the 2021 IWGS New Waterlily Competition. We look forward to more exciting new entries next year.