The Atlanta Botanical Garden put its strongest water lilies to the test during a TikTok challenge against botanical gardens across the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Denver Botanical Garden started the “Water Lily Weigh-Off” three years ago, and it quickly spread throughout the country over the next two years. What originally began as an educational video showing off their Victoria Longwood Hybrid is now a celebrated challenge every year on TikTok.
For their entry in this year’s event, the Atlanta Botanical Garden chose one of its Victoria cruzianas, the largest of three the garden has. In its TikTok, Atlanta Botanical says the leaf is 42 inches in diameter, 4 inches less than the garden’s largest water lily.
In the first practice attempt to test the flower’s strength, the horticulturist used four packs of Atlanta-based Wild Heaven Hoppy Lager beer, weighing 20 pounds. They also added a stack of the botanical garden’s Synecology magazines, weighing about 10 pounds. Last, they added their “friend” Terry the Squirrel, adding 1 last pound.
For their real attempt, the garden used one 40-pound sandbag and three 10-pound sandbags, piling on an impressive 70 pounds for their water lily. The Denver Botanical Garden commented on the TikTok, saying, “Very respectable submission.”
The Atlanta Botanical Garden told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that although the Victoria cruziana worked well for this year’s challenge, they hope the Victoria Longwood Hybrid — a cross between Victoria cruziana and a Victoria amazonica —they are currently growing will be available next year.
The Victoria cruzianas are hard to top, but the botanical garden told the AJC there are other water lilies at the garden that are “viviparous.”
“What that means is that these water lilies are capable of producing new plants from an existing leaf,” Taylor Polomsky, a horticulturist at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, told the AJC. “These Viviparous water lilies will start growing a new plant, usually referred to as a plantlet, at the point where the pad and stem meet. It’s always an interesting site to see when we get into the water to work with the plants and you discover all of the little babies.”
The TikTok Weigh-Off is a friendly competition, the Atlanta Botanical Garden said.
“It doesn’t matter which lily holds the most weight; we’re all winners if we can bring attention to the plants that sustain our planet,” the garden’s spokesperson told the AJC in an email.
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