Like the mirage of an oasis unfolding in the heat waves of the desert, San Angelo’s International Waterlily Collection might look like something that would disappear after rubbing your eyes. It seems almost impossible that one of the world’s most diverse collections of water lilies could survive in the semi-arid climate of West Texas. But the seven lush pools of floppy lily pads and vibrantly plump water lilies housed in the historic Civic Leage Park prevail as testament to the dedication of the man who acquired and propagated these specimens for over 40 years, earning him the moniker “the Indiana Jones of the water lily world.”
The collection is a colorful mosaic of aquatic flowers, with over 300 varieties of water lilies currently on display. These include hybrids like the Texas state water lily, Texas Dawn, whose pale yellow petals stretch across the pond like the light of the morning sun; and massive Victoria water lilies, whose lily pads can support 200 pounds of weight across their 8-foot-long leaves. These water lilies, and more, will be on display this September during the International Waterlily Collection’s annual Lily Fest where visitors can learn more about the science behind water lily propagation or enjoy fun activities and live music.
But visitors don’t have to wait until September to view or learn more about the water lilies in the collection. The collection is open free to the public year-round and visitors can even call ahead to schedule a tour. If asked, Chase Twombly, the current director of the International Waterlily Collection, will even pick visitors a small bouquet of water lilies that they can take home.
“One thing we love doing is giving away the flowers,” says Twombly, who currently operates the collection in collaboration with the City of San Angelo Parks & Recreation Department. “I’ll pick you a bouquet of flowers that, I promise you, money can’t buy.”
Many of these hybrids are the creation of Kenneth Landon, the original director of the International Waterlily Collection, who Twombly worked with for over 20 years before Landon died in 2021. Landon is responsible for transforming Civic League Park’s abandoned reflecting pool into a flourishing garden that attracts local and international visitors alike, many of whom have heard legends about Landon and his globe-trotting.
“He traveled the world collecting stuff that was either considered endangered, extinct in the wild, or just really hard to get,” Twombly says. “The Star of Mexico would be one of them.”
The elusive Star of Mexico, which Landon wrote extensively about, was thought to be extinct. Still, Landon decided to set out and look for the plant. Braving unmapped, leech-infested lagoons and the frustration that he might never be able to find the flower, Landon continued from the village of Lerma, Mexico and along the Lerma River until the flowers finally revealed themselves to him in an isolated lagoon, about 30 miles away from Mexico City. “Stunned, I stared at them, speechless and completely overwhelmed by the dazzling white blossoms that seemed to radiate a countenance of their own,” Landon wrote in a blog post for the International Waterlily Collection’s webpage.
The collection continues to attract attention as the only aquatic garden to host The International Waterlily & Water Gardening Society Symposium twice in the past 15 years, once in 2010 and another time in 2018. While the collection might not be as physically big as other water lily collections that host the symposium, it continues to house the most diverse array of water lilies, explains Carl White, who has worked as director for the parks and recreation department for 20 years.
“It’s surprising to see such a collection in a city here in West Texas. You don’t expect to see it, yet there it is,” White says. “I travel around the world a lot, and I go to botanical gardens. When I see the water lily collections, there’s nothing that compares to what we have here in terms of diversity.”
Twombly isn’t focused on hybridizing water lilies as much as Landon. Instead, he’s focused on maintaining what Landon left behind. “He did spend his life dedicated to doing his trade,” Twombly says. And that includes continuing Landon’s legacy of hosting Lily Fest every September since 2005. Now, though, Twombly has added his own spin on the event by making it a family-friendly day with activities like Kona Ice and a bounce house in addition to educational activities.
For the remainder of the year, the collection remains a tranquil location for visitors to stop by and enjoy the beauty of nature, says Melody Twombly, Chase’s wife, who’s volunteered and worked with the collection since 2001.
“We have lots of families with kids, and they’ll have a fun time looking at the little mosquito eater fish that we have or looking at dragonflies fly around,” Melody says. “It’s just a nice place to be in touch with nature without having to go out to the middle of nowhere.”
