Tropical water-lilies do everything on a grander scale than the hardies. They grow wider and taller and in a greater range of color. Their blooming habits are more versatile, half of them blooming in daytime, the rest opening at night. Almost all of the day bloomers and a few night bloomers have fragrance. Many carry their blooms aloft, well above the surface of the water; and long, strong stems make most of them excellent for cutting.

Emily Grant Hutchins. This picture captures perfectly the hue of the giant red-pink night-blooming tropical, which many water gardeners show off to its best by illuminating it with a small, hidden spotlight at the side of the pool.

There are more species of tropicals than of hardies, and they hybridize more readily, which has resulted in a tremendous number of varieties. (Incidentally,
I use the terms hybrid and variety interchangeably.)

The foliage of most tropicals is spreading and luxurious, and that of many of the species and varieties is toothed and crimped or fluted at the edge. Most of them require more pool or pond space, half again to twice as much as the hardies.

Comanche, biggest and best of the Changeable water-lilies, opens a rich rose, overlaid with apricot, and passes to a deep, then deeper, coppery bronze as it matures.

Tropicals are not as versatile as the hardies, however, when it comes to growing, for they must have comparatively shallow water at the start. They do well in pools, large and small. They thrive in ponds when planted around the shallow edges or propped up in the deep water to a level from which blooms can break the surface.

As with the hardies, I include several species and varieties which may seem identical. That is intentional, for I want to present a complete range of colors and shapes, even if I have to overlap a little to do it.

Several species and varieties of day-blooming tropical water-lilies have an interesting characteristic that few other flowers have. They are viviparous, that is, they bear their young alive, in the form of miniature plants and blooms which sprout from an umbilicus at the center of mature leaves. Viviparousness is discussed in detail in the section on propagation.