Human Flower Project
On a Green Platter
Victoria Water Platters are in bloom at Como Park (St. Paul, Minnesota), after a 100 year hiatus.
Victoria water platter in flower
Victoria amazonica
Photo: U.S. National Arboretum
Not that anyone needs a reason for living, here’s one: The chance to see a Victoria Water Platter.
We spotted a news brief from the Twin Cities announcing that “Seven platters (Victoria amazonica) are on display in the heated pool at the visitor center in the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory,” flowering this year after taking a century-long break. The Conservatory is part of Como Park; the water platter, we just learned, is “a rare flower native to equatorial Brazil.”
How nice. Well, no. It’s more like—How unbelievable! According to the U.S. National Arboretum, the proud steward of some water platters of its own, “Open flowers may be as large as a volleyball.” The vision of Lily Summers standing on a water platter leaf could open even the most cramped mind to possibility.
Lily Summers, September 2003, Tower Grove Park
Photo: Joe Summers
Water platters seem to have a powerful effect on people—check out Kit and Ben Knotts’s website dedicated to Victoria water platters , one of the most sumptuous flower sites we’ve ever come across. Kit has compiled a fine history of the water platters’ discovery by Europeans. Knotts also writes, “The largest Victoria that we have found reported was grown in 1891 at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. under the care of George W. Oliver. It measured 90 inches in diameter and the plant had a spread of 47 feet.”
One of the most amazing features of this plant is the way its immense leave turn upward at the edges, toward the sun. Treat youself to pictures of the Knotts’ water platter garden overlooking the ocean, a list of public gardens that have these magnificent plants, and lots more.
May those in the Twin Cities not miss what may be a once in a lifetime opportunity. And may the rest of us be wowed. Congratulations and thank you, Kit and Ben, for your astonishing Human Flower Project!