I wrote this over on the "hybridising" forum but I really want to know what makes a lily tick for you, so I'm posting it here too.
I am very quickly discovering that there is definitely more to a good tropical water-lily than just colour. There seem to be two definite strains floating around, weak and rampant! Not much in-between. There are a few gems of course.
Flower substance and shape is vital. The double fancy ones can be a mess in heavy rain very hot sunshine and wind, in fact rarely looking fabulous all the time. Taking on a shredded cabbage look, and then flopping backwards like a damp mop. Other tropicals are so weak even rain drops cause bruising on the thin leaves, making lacy holes right through them. Others grow so rampantly they are only suitable for a large public lake and very quickly languish when they run out of food, and then others are so feeble they only want to send out one leaf a month and a flower just when they feel like it. And then yet others who go into panic the minute the weather drops bellow 86% withholding flowers and sending out silly little leaves as though winter had arrived early with 85f.
So choose carefully and ask questions before you buy. Better still observe carefully how they are growing. What is the perfect lily for you?
For me it must be floriferous, it must have smallish leaves with good leathery substance, it must have strong flower stalks that stand straight and send up sturdy large flowers with excellent substance, it must grow well and healthily but not rampantly, it must open all day for three days in a row while maintaining its perfect lily shape, and it must be a lovely lovely colour of course.
Not too much to ask you would think, but you would be surprised. I am slowly whittling down the competition to see what's left of mine as the winners, I'll let you know. A few are looking very promising. When we eventualy hit the 70%f in our winter I will know everything about them.
Meantime Im off to Thailand to find the perfect white, N' crystal is looking promising on paper, though I've no idea. See what I can come up with. Beware don't just choose on colour of flower or leaf alone no matter how unusual it might appear. There is so much more that's much more important to growing a really good water lily.