Provenance of
N. 'Enchantment' (Randig)
by Kit Knotts

N. 'Enchantment' requires, in my opinion, a personal account of my experience with it. I first received it from Slocum Water Gardens in 1989 and grew it for a number of years, eventually losing it to overgrowth. I was able to confirm that the cultivar growing in the Merritt Island Ace Garden Center pond (plants provided by Perry Slocum) was correct and obtained tubers from it in 1998, since confirmed by other experts. In subsequent years, I have been asked to evaluate versions of N. 'Enchantment' currently available in the trade and I do not believe they are correct.

The flowers of the true cultivar have slender petals of a unique salmon pink. The plants in the trade have slightly wider petals, paler sepals and lack the salmon cast in the overall color. Pads are egg-shaped, pea green, sometimes with a salmon cast, pink at the edges top and bottom. The sinus overlaps, lobes often pushing together to raise a "sail". Pads of the trade plants are consistent with the original, indicating they are probably seedlings of the original.

Perry D. Slocum is an acknowledged expert on the identification of waterlilies.

Dr. Clyde Ikins is an acknowledged expert on the identification of waterlilies.

Provenance provides the history of and chain of ownership of plants pictured on this web site. Each image in the cultivar and species galleries has been researched to the best of our ability for accuracy. Print references for waterlilies can be found in the Bibliography of Names. Images have also been reviewed by acknowledged experts. When possible we provide this provenance, from the hybridizer, back to the hybridizer or, for older cultivars, back to an expert source.