The Other Bill Heritage

A few years ago Bill's brother Nigel discovered that there was another Bill Heritage. This one lives in America and owns a winery. Bill did send an email to the winery, but got no reply. The William Heritage Winery is in Mullica Hill, New Jersey. It is not far away from Longwood Gardens so we tried just turning up.

It was initially disappointing. The NJ Bill (actually a William) was not on the premises. However, his wife was, and we had a most agreeable chat with Penni Heritage.

The big question was, of course, “Are we related?” The New Zealand Heritages are a branch of the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire Heritages in England. There is one known link to America. NZ Bill's great great grandfather, Caleb Heritage, had a brother Joshua who emigrated to the United States. We even have a copy of a photograph he sent back to England. Penni had no knowledge of an ancestral Joshua Heritage, and produced a beautifully drawn family tree that traced William's family back to an Eli Heritage.

Eli was born well before Caleb; probably one or maybe two generations further back. We photographed the tree and sent it to the genealogists in the Oxon/Warwicks tribe, but no connection has yet been established.

Penni generously gave us a complimentary tasting of some New Jersey Heritage wines, and we bought a couple of bottles that merited more than just a taste.

Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania

Before we leap into a description of the gardens and the photographs there is a little bit of history to explain why we went there.

Bill's father (Bill Snr.) was England's leading expert on garden ponds and a member of the International Water Lily Society. Indeed, he was inducted into the IWLS Hall of Fame. He modestly described this achievement as “They like to induct someone every year and they ran out of people who deserved it.” Bill's parents made many friends through the IWLS. Among them were Patrick Nutt and his wife, Ann. After Bill Snr. ceased active participation in IWLS letters were still exchanged and by 2018, after most of the principals in this story had died, we were left with Ann Nutt's email address in Bill Junior's address book. We let her know we were going to be in the area and asked if we could pop in and say “Hello”.

Ann suggested that we meet at Longwood Gardens. At that stage the name meant nothing to either of us, since Bill Snr. had talked to us only about the people, not their connection to water lilies. We assumed that there would be water lilies at the gardens, although they would not be at their best when we were there in mid October.

Yes, there are water lilies and many other flowers, but first we learned a lot more about the IWLS relationship and Longwood Gardens. Bill Snr. and Patrick shared a love of water lilies and an air force background. They had lots to talk about and got on extremely well together. Patrick was a horticulturist at Longwood Gardens and he, too, had been inducted into the Hall of Fame for successfully hybridising Victoria cruziana and Victoria amazonica (the Amazon lily with leaves the size of café table-tops).

Some pygmy water lilies can be grown in a container little bigger that a goldfish bowl. You need a pond the size of a swimming pool to keep Longwood Hybrid happy.

Its flower is not the usual water lily 'star'.

We were introduced to some of the current Longwood horticulturists, who remembered Bill Snr. very well. They also clearly admired him as an expert in his field. Tim, who now fills Patrick's senior role at the Gardens, was eager to show us Bill Snr.'s books in the extensive Longwood library, but they couldn't be found. We will be remedying the omission soon.

Tim, whose surname we omitted to write down ,and Ann Nutt.

We conveniently left the library just before the fountain garden played. There are scores of fountain jets that are 'choreographed' to go with music.

At full blast.

Some jets can sway from side to side.

A cunningly formed water 'basket'.

The whole performance took about 20 minutes. The last piece was Nessum Dorma sung by Pavarotti. Eve found it so beautiful she cried.

Ann guided us on a tour of the Gardens. Here are a selection of the blooms on display:

Cleome (Spider flower)

Dahlias

More dahlias

Does your garden incorporate a train set?

Thomas the Tank Engine brings movement to this border.