BREEDING PIONEER
The first person to take an interest in breeding waterlilies was Joseph Bory Latour-Marliac, from France, who introduced more than 70 varieties between 1879 and 1911. Breeding waterlilies is problematic, not just because of the large expanses of water needed to grow on seedlings, but because the flowers are thought to be self-fertile in the wild. Many of his early attempts were unsuccessful or resulted in hybrids that were infertile. However, Latour-Marliac persevered, and his Marliacea hybrids, which are vigorous and suitable for medium to large ponds, were for almost a century the best available and still dominate garden centre stocks to this day. ‘Marliacea Chromatella’ has rich yellow blooms and ‘Marliacea Carnea’ is soft pink, with a good fragrance. The parentage of the coloured hybrid waterlilies is likely based on the native N. alba and the red N. alba var. rubra from Sweden. Latour-Marliac named another group of waterlilies after his son-in-law Maurice Laydeker. These include N. ‘Laydekeri Purpurata’, with wine-red flowers, and ‘Rosea’, both of which are suitable for small to medium-sized ponds. Latour-Marliac exhibited his new waterlilies at the World’s Fair in Paris, in 1889, which also included the recently completed Eiffel Tower, and they were planted in the water gardens in front of the Trocadero. Here, they captured the imagination of artist Claude Monet, who ordered some for his new garden at Giverny, where they later featured in his paintings.