Misspent dotage: 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.