The Lily Pad

The world famous Water Lily house is one of the garden's most popular attractions. It's been drawing the crows for nearly 170 years and at its so beautiful. It's amazing. Yeah, I've never seen anything Just discovered in the Bolivian rainforests, this extraordinary species grows lily pads almost two metres wide. But what most of the visitors don't realise is that every spring the water lilies start from scratch. Water lilies are in the nursery so they are having a little sleep for the winter and they will be woken up to start them growing and we will bring them here when we fill up the pond and they will be teeny tiny but they will grow really fast because they've got a nice fresh compost to go into and a big pot. So these plants here which is the statement and then we lay the middle bit around. Now in March, Solene and her team are busy preparing the house again for this year's display. At the moment we are planting the surrounding beds and will be the background to the centre stage which is the pond with water lilies. So we get ghouls at the back, luffa and luffa, then we've got passive lover. The plants are really small. They grow from cuttings every year but everything grows very fast and as soon as the sun and the heat kicks in May then the plant takes over. I've been in charge of this display for the last three years. It's always so exciting to see those plants coming out as little babies and it's really my favourite display. Every year it is a bit of a stress to get it all done in time and the idea that I have is it going to actually work. It'spring across Kew Gardens with life bursting forth everywhere. And in the water lily house Solene is busy preparing for some serious spring planting. And she's hoping for a record breaking year. It's going to grow really fast and take over this pond. One of the ponds might be bigger than this pond itself. This might be the biggest I've grown in my time and maybe the biggest we've grown at Kew Gardens. So we'll see. Time will tell. The original giant water lily named after Queen Victoria was found at Bolivia by plant hunters in 1801. The stories of these massive lily pads captured the public imagination and when seeds finally arrived in Britain in the 1840s it inspired a battle of horticultural wits. Kew and a couple of other private estates particularly Chatsworth and also the Sion House were all competing to try to flower this giant Amazonian lily for the first time. Sadly for us it was Chatsworth who won that competition in 1849 and then the following year Kew followed suit with flowering plants. To honour that achievement the water lily house was built. The showcase this latest arrival. When it opened in 1852 it was an immediate sensation. The pads could be up to two and a half metres in diameter and famously children have been photographed sitting on top of them because they have this amazing ability to bear weight because they have air pockets within the actual lily pads. It's amazing to think the water lily has grown every year from scratch and if Solan gets away these pads will be two metres wide in two months time. It's now the middle of spring and at Kew and Wakehurst the teams are being kept extremely busy. We just had to keep on watching and watching just hoping that they survived. Not least by the unseasonably warm weather. I think were just a little bit shocked how warm spring's been so early. Inside and outside the glass houses it's a hive of activity. So you're having to do your propagation, you're having to do seed sowing, you're having to do potting up, you're having to take cuttings as well and all of this happens at the same time. Solan too is in her element and enjoying spring in the Victorian water lily house. This house it's entering its prime display time. It's going very lush this year. One of Solan's many daily jobs is to keep it looking its very best. If you leave the pond with they would cover the whole pond in no time so you have to keep it under control. So I still do some cleanup of the flowers and the old leaves. For the centrepiece Solan is growing a monster Bolivian water lily and is determined that its size will be an all time record. I'm still amazed how quick it grows and takes over the whole house. They're almost 160. I think the record is 2m, 2m40 starting to get to a nice size now. I'm removing the flower buds because I still want it to focus on growing its large leaves and I will let it flower in late July and then that's when we will try to pollinate it to get some seeds for next year. They all have a really nice sweet scent when I'm looking up to the pond I always get a nice sniff of them. Another in the water lily house. Against all the odds Solan has produced an amazing display. I'm very pleased with how it's done. It's less crowded than the previous year. Although it looks beautiful on the surface, under the water it's a different story. I've got to push them away from me because they're very spiny and the peteal just here under the water is covered with pine. But what we all want to know is has she beaten the record? So currently this is our largest pad which measures 1m86 but it'still quite far off from the cruziana I record which I think is 2m36 so we're still a bit far off. Luckily there's another month of the growing season to go solan'still in with a chance. The newest pad is just under water here. The next one along is still under water here. Then it's n So it goes in the circle sending new pads. So we'll see if any of the new pad that are unfolding would reach. Maybe 2m would be a nice achievement. And as spring gives way to s There we go. There will be an initial rush. Being cooped up indoors for two months, the first thing you want to do is be in a space Huge, fresher. So many people have said that they're so happy that we'reopened. I just love it here again. It's not long before the glass houses also reopen and the public gets to marvel at Solan's water lily house. How big were they? How big? Massive about this big. If I was the frog I'd be really happy. They were amazing. I was not to see them flower. Coming out to kind of just