At the Huntsville Botanical Gardens in Huntsville, Alabama, they have an annual tradition to celebrate their magnificent water lilies. The giant water lily weigh-off is celebrated in botanical gardens around the world. The Huntsville team loaded their giant water lily with just over 176 pounds.
Videos by InspireMore
In 2024, the Missouri Botanical Garden won by piling 142.1 pounds onto its five-foot-wide water lily. This year, Claire and Greta return to weigh in for the Missouri Botanical Garden. In true St. Louis fashion, the girls piled it on, beating last year’s total by 40 pounds. Their lily cried “uncle” at 182 pounds!
One of the international entries came from Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London, England. They take this competition seriously over there. The water lily measures two meters at its widest point (roughly six and a half feet in non-metric). They were able to pile 76.5 kg (168.7 lbs) onto their water lily. Sadly, that didn’t beat Missouri’s entry, but it does allow them some big smiles.
For anyone worried about damage to the water lilies during this competition, Kew Gardens assures us that the water lilies have air-filled veins on their underside that give them great buoyancy. There were more than 40 entries to this year’s weigh-off.
This contest was started as an online challenge by The Denver Botanic Gardens. Their giant water lily isn’t so giant, only measuring in at 29 inches across. Apparently, it is difficult to grow tropical plants in the cool Colorado climate. They were only able to load 50 pounds onto their water lily, but it was a valiant effort.
The Denver crew reinforced the buoyancy message by showing the underside of their giant water lily.
Please be sure to check Denver BG’s website for the final results when available.
Please share.
You can find the source of this story’s featured image here and here.
Want to be happier in just 5 minutes a day? Sign up for Morning Smile and join over 455,000+ people who start each day with good news.
