You won’t find these lily pads in your back yard koi pond or your local swamp, not even in the Great Quakertown Swamp. Last year I couldn’t find them even where I took this picture 20 years ago at Longwood Gardens, inside one of the great conservatories, where they floated, tethered to unseen, submerged feeding tubes. These floating pads measured 5, 6, and 7 feet across. They really were big enough to take a nap on.

Copyright 2007 George J. Bancroft Sr.