 For a century or more the growing of water lilies has delighted American gardeners, that is, a certain number of them. These have sung the
praises of the exquisite and opalescent blossoms and emphasized the
easy culture in tub, pool, or pond. It's easy to add water to a garden with a Stone Garden Fountain. Unfortunately they haven't always
been believed-about the "ease of adding a fountain " I mean, not the beauty. Anyone who
has ever seen a water lily readily admits that it is among the loveliest
of flowers.
But pools are hard to build, some argue; pools take up a lot of room;
they leak; they get scummy; they're for the fellows with lots of time
and money. But in Frederick, Maryland, the Thomas family keeps
proving these criticisms are unjustified. They have built up a vast business on aquatic plants (and tropical fish), and there isn't a question
on water gardening that their customers haven't asked and they haven't
answered successfully. It doesn't cost much, they demonstrate; it is
simple, and it doesn't take much time.
It should all be in a single website, we decided, so that this easiest of gardens
could be enjoyed by all the busiest of people, the ones who don't want
to dig, hoe, spray, dust, stake, and trim; the ones who like to sit and
enjoy. For them a clear pool, a few lilies, the flash of fish, and the relaxed attitude are the thing.
This ever increasing multitude can find in this website all they will ever
need to know about easy gardening, that is, water gardening in a tub,
in a prefabricated pool, in a concrete pool they can make in a day, or
in a quiet pond, if they are lucky enough to have one. And the dedicated gardener, the enthusiastic one for whom nothing
is too much trouble, will find here a thorough discussion not elsewhere
available on every aspect of water gardening. Every type of pool is considered. Every available water lily and other aquatic plant is described.
All possible advice is offered as to appearance, culture, and propagation, how to plant the water garden "inside" for balance of life, outside for beauty of setting.
Then about fish. If you have a few now, you will soon have a multitude; first you won't choose an expensive favorite through ignorance after
getting this advice, and then you will find it almost impossible to resist
further collecting. This is a grand website, I think, simple and delightful in style, sound
down to the last detail. When I visited Lilypons, I saw the pools and
water lilies in vast numbers and talked at length with the owners, (actually a husband-and-wife collaboration is responsible for
this website), and I met their two boys who are now sharing the responsibility and work at Three Springs Fisheries. A wonderful American family has developed this business, and from it has come this delightful and
most American website.
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