LAZIO
LATINA
Where the Water Lilies grow
The Water Nursery, albeit being the most extensive Italian collection for wetland vegetation, is also an endeavour that narrates about the land’s history and through this it self sustains itself, transforming complex environmental conditions into botanical creations of amazing beauty.
From the passion of the owner, Mr Davide La Salvia a passion born over the years amid the marshlands of Agro Pontino, it then developed into what we have today, also thanks to his son Valerio. This collection comprises of over 1500 wetland and aquatic plants from all over the world. If on the one hand, the enterprise is run for commercial purposes - the nursery attends to important Italian botanical gardens - on the other hand, the passion underlying the whole project makes Water Nursery one of the most valuable research and experimentation locations for aquatic plants in Europe. If the cataloguing work - the compilation of an index plantarum of the species present is among the priorities - there is also the collaboration with universities and botanical gardens. Among the many cultivated rarities, there is the autochthonous Nymphaea alba, also known as European white water lily (now down to just a few specimens), the less common varieties of irises such as Pseudocorus flore pleno, bastardi, donau, berlin tiger variegato, or the spectacular irises from Louisiana, the Asian water lily Euryale Ferox with its big thorny leaves, the Victoria Cruziana with its typical rimmed leaves and large white flower, the Nymphaea Lotus (that blooms at night and was sacred to the Egyptians), or the lotus flowers such as Nelumbo Nucifera, sacred to the Asians.