Nymphaea 'Albert Greenberg' Tropical Waterlily

This is a photograph of a pink Albert Greenberg water lily that I took in a small pond at the Chicago Botanical Gardens in Glencoe, Illinois. I... more

by Bruce Bley

Title

Nymphaea 'Albert Greenberg' Tropical Waterlily

Artist

Bruce Bley

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

This is a photograph of a pink Albert Greenberg water lily that I took in a small pond at the Chicago Botanical Gardens in Glencoe, Illinois. I enjoy close up photograph, hoping to catch the detail that one might miss and capture the play on light on the subject matter.

The day-blooming tropical waterlily ‘Albert Greenberg’ is a very free-flowering cultivar with orange-pink petals that have slightly deeper pink tips. These beautifully fragranced, cup-shaped flowers are held above the water surface and begin to close around sunset. The pollen-carrying anthers in the flower's center are a canary yellow. This waterlily has green floating leaves with numerous streaks of purple. Leaf undersides are green and pink with dark red blotches. They are supported by flexible yellow-green stems that arise from a rhizome growing in mucky soil below.

The Chicago Botanic Garden traces its origins back to the Chicago Horticultural Society, founded in 1890. With the motto Urbs in Horto, meaning "city in a garden," the Society hosted nationally recognized flower and horticultural shows, its third the World's Columbian Exposition Chrysanthemum Show, held in conjunction with the world's fair in October 1893.

After a period of inactivity, the Chicago Horticultural Society was restarted in 1943. In 1962, its modern history began when the Society agreed to help create and manage a new public garden. With the groundbreaking for the Chicago Botanic Garden in 1965 and its opening in 1972, the Society created a permanent site on which to carry out its mission. The Garden today is an example of a successful public-private partnership. It is owned by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County and operated by the Chicago Horticultural Society.

I hope you have enjoyed this photograph and will share it with others. You can see more of my work on my homepage and in the various galleries and groups that I am a member of. Your comments on my work are greatly appreciated. Thank you for visiting.

Uploaded

August 1st, 2015