Larger than life; Kew's superstar

Kew Gardens can proud itself of having some 50 000 different live plants in its collections, reputedly the largest in the world. Many of these are diminutive and not very exciting to the untrained eye but there are also, as one might expect, many wonders of the vegetable world. I like to amaze people by showing them some of these striking plants on my guided visits and I think it is fair to say that none excites them more than the giant waterlily. In a world where size is everything, Venus fly trap cannot compete with Gunneras and Redwoods, but Victoria certainly can and indeed there is enough here to satifsy a size Queen.

The first westerner to discover the giant waterlily was the Bohemian (Czech) botanist and naturalist Tadeáš Haenke. Although this happened in 1801, it it was only in 1849 that the plant was grown successfully in Europe - by the English, at Kew (of course!), Chatsworth (Derbyshire) and Syon (across the Thames from Kew). It was in the great glasshouse of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth that the first flower opened and was presented to Queen Victoria, whose name it comemorates. No doubt that made the gardeners at Kew green with envy, but the record does not tell us anything about that. All we know is that theirs flowered a year later. Strong of the first successes, many people of the European Elite built glasshouses to accomodate the beast in their collection and here at Kew the waterlily house was put up in 1852. Having this small glasshouse meant that the exacting growth requirements of the waterlily were met and that it its ebullient foliage was displayed beautifully, as it is still today. Hailing as it does from the hot tropics, Victoria needs warm water and hot temperatures to grow well and to walk in there on a sunny day is a stiffling experience, with all this humidity in the air!

The most amazing fact about the Victoria at Kew is that it is grown from a seed every year. In the wild, the plant is perennial, but it does not take very kindly to the British winters and is more difficult to keep going than to grow from seed every year. The seed is sown in January, is put in the pond in April and almost at once starts growing at a phenomenal rate. By August its leaves are about 5 feet (150cm) in diameter and the plant fills most of the pond. Only one plant is put in and even if it is pretty impressive, it would pale next to one of the record breaking plants of 'La Rinconada' in Santa Cruz, Bolivia - but then they do have the advantage of the perfect climate! After seeing this, no one would doubt that, although the night-blooming flowers of the giant waterlily are beautiful, looking somewhat like a large peony or double camellia, it is the leaf of Victoria that really capture the imagination. It is a construction of great ingenuity, having a netting of veins that give it tremendous strenght. As the leaf unfurls, it traps air underneath and a mature leaf can withstand a charge of 45 Kg or so if well distributed on the surface. Also it has a slit on one side that allows the rain water to escape and is covered with spines on the undersides to deter fish and other aquatic life from damaging it.

There are two species of Victoria, V. amazonica et V. cruziana. The first has the largest pads but the upturned edge of the leaf is narrower. It also needs hotter conditions to grow well and so at Kew V. cruziana is the one usually grown as it does better and looks more dramatic. Some years a vigorous hybrid of the two species, 'Longwood Hybrid', is also grown.