IWC_AboutUs

International Waterlily Collection

A Place to Fuel the Imagination.

About Us

Kenneth Landon

Ken

Ken has been growing, perfecting propagating techniques and hybridizing some of the most amazing lilies the world has seen.

He was a founding member of the IWGS.

He is a 2001 IWGS Hall of Fame member.

He is called the "Species Lily Guy" and is proud of it.

If you want to know what a particular waterlilies parentage is, just ask Ken as he is one of the foremost experts alive today.

He is the developer of one of the best fertilizer mixes on the market for growing outstanding waterlilies.

He is known as the Indiana Jones of the waterlily world as he has gone out and braved snakes, alligators and other nasty creatures in the search of new or sometimes very old waterlilies.

On numerous occassions he has been called upon to help Universities, Botanical Gardens including Longwood and Missouri Botannical to help them acquire materials necessary for their displays. When someone says "that lily is extinct or no longer around" they might want to check with Ken as many times he is able to say,"Oh, I have that one."

He helped the country of Egypt reacquire the Lily of the Nile. This was their sacred plant and thought to be extinct. He was able to supply enough seed for them to reintroduce it to the Nile River region.

He has almost single handedly built this amazing collection that is on display in San Angelo. He has built the walkways, the fences and done almost everything needed to revitalize what was once an eyesore pool that drew less than savory characters to the park. It is now a wonderful world class destination for waterlily enthusiasts from the world over.

The Staff

Ken has for a long time been fortunate to have assistance from wonderful young people. Many he met while helping to teach as they came to him as volunteer students. Over the years, many have helped for a few months, a season and in some special cases a number of years. In most long term cases they have been young ladies because they have a passion for the work and have the patience for the detailed culling of inferior material as well as planting, feeding and propagating the collection under Ken's guidance. The collection that you see on a daily basis would not be possible without these assistants.

Tim Davis

Tim has always been interested in photography and later computers as a digital darkroom. Tim wanted to photograph some waterlilies as he had seen in numerous calendars and postcards. When he could not find a good source for subject matter he became interested in growing his own subjects for photography. Tim has been growing lilies for the last 4 years. He has been steadily collecting lilies throughout that time and has recently become very interested in the hybridization aspect of lilies. This led to meeting Ken who has become a wonderful friend and a mentor for the future. As a way of helping Ken, Tim decided to try and get this website up for the world to learn about a most remarkable place.

Garet Uemura

Garet lives in Hawaii. A perfect growing climate for lilies. As such he has had great success not only growing them but also hybridizing them as well. He has at least two dozen named lilies to date and many more in the future. He does this as a hobby like many of us however he has shown how much of an impact a hobbyist can have. He has been a friend to Ken for a number of years. He is a strong contributor of pictures and information to out site. We count ourselves fortunate to call him a friend. In addition to his own work he has strong ties to many experts in Asia. His help has and will continue to allow us to access a lot of information sources that we otherwise might miss out on. We want to thank him in a public forum.

Here is a link to a short biography about Garet that he was thoughtful enough to provide for us.

Garet Uemura Bio

K. Miyagawa

Mr. Miyagawa is one of those contacts that Garet has helped us make. This is what Mr. Miyagawa told me about himself... "We are a small family owned business with waterlilies and lotuses in Southern Japan. We grow & sell. Here in Japan, there were many lilies that's not true to name. So I want to deliver the right lilies to Japanese people who are interested in water lilies. Garet is my good friend. He always give me many rare lilies & useful information." He is well known in Japan. In addition to being a grower and seller, he is a wonderful photographer. He has a website devoted to waterlilies and lotuses. It is in Japanese. He is a published author on the subject of waterlilies. I am told his book is similiar to one of Perry Slocum's book for the Japanese people. It is a photo book with some information on each lily pictured. He has given us over 200 pictures to help identify through photographic means lilies in existance. We thank him for his help.

Special People Who We Feel Need To Be Recognized

This will be updated as time and research permits. Please understand it is a work in progress.