For years, the Denver Botanic Gardens marketing team has entertained fans with lily pad-weighing content, showing off the impressive nature of the Victoria Longwood Hybrid Water Lily in the ponds of the garden.
But in 2023, they invited other botanic gardens to join them and show off how much their water lilies could hold. The New York Botanic Gardens took the bait and posted a video, which went viral.
A year later, they decided to make an even bigger splash, with 13 other gardens participating in the now-official Water Lily Weigh-Off in 2024.
This year, at least 40 gardens across the globe have joined in on the fun.
The Victoria Longwood Hybrid Water Lily is a unique species, capable of holding many pounds of weight due to its complex criss-crossing vein system, which Denver Botanic Gardens experts called “life buoys.”
The aquatic plants are not endangered, but they are a hybrid of two threatened plant species.
A hybrid of the Victoria amazonica, which is native to the Amazon River basin, and Victoria cruziana, found in the Paraná-Paraguay River systems, these parent species are native to the warm waters of South America.
They are subject to the same ills that plague most of the area, including habitat degradation caused by illegal logging, mining, and human development; water pollution; and rising temperatures that could shrink the habitat of these lilies.
Many botanic gardens offer educational and conservation programming to study and preserve the genetic diversity of these species over time.
“The social media competition … provides a playful opportunity to educate the public about the fascinating world of aquatic plants, specifically the waterlily species V. amazonica, V. cruziana and Victoria ‘Longwood hybrid,’” the Denver Botanic Gardens shared.
“The leaves (lily pads or platters) of these tropical plants can grow up to a diameter of 10 feet and hold the weight of an adult.”
“This is possible due to the upturned leaf rims that keep water out and a network of hollow veins along the bottom of the leaf that are filled with air to support buoyancy,” they explained. “The large size and sharp spines on the underside of the leaves destroy plants that encroach on their space.”
Last year, the Missouri Botanical Gardens took home the “Water Lily Heavyweight Champion” trophy, with their entry holding 142 pounds before it started to sink.
“We mailed them a trophy, and they will pass it on to the 2025 winner,” Denver Botanic Gardens explained.
This year, the winner could be anyone.
Missouri once again shared an impressive entry, with this year’s weight clocking in at 182 pounds. They loaded up their lily pad with sandbags, bricks, and free weights, and added two cans of local beer for good measure.
Other contestants are also taking their own creative liberties and sharing a little local love in the process.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, for instance, partnered with local bakery Junior’s to see how many cheesecakes its lily could support.
Like most competitors, they start with a wooden base to support the onslaught of weight, which weighs about nine pounds.
“Each of these cheesecakes weighs three pounds, and we’re going to see how many it can hold before things go south,” a representative of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden said in a social media video.
With seven total cheesecakes, weighing 21 pounds, on top of the nine-pound wooden board, they offered up a 30-pound entry.
At the Eden Project in Cornwall, U.K., botanists used traditional Cornish pasties as their weights.
And the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh topped their lily with a six-pack of Irn-Bru, a famous Scottish soft drink.
The third annual competition is going on now through August 24, with the winner to be announced on the Denver Botanic Gardens’ social media pages on August 28.
Participating gardens and zoos so far span across eight countries, and the 40 entrants can share their contribution via TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook.
While the competition is a fun way to connect with aquatic plant enthusiasts across the globe, it’s also a way to encourage newcomers to explore and support their local botanic gardens and protected natural areas.
In fact, viewers are enraptured.
“I’m sat,” one person commented on a TikTok from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. “This is my Super Bowl.”
“I’ve never been more invested in water lilies,” another shared with Denver Botanic Gardens.
Some commenters have even shared that they have their own spreadsheets to track the diameter and load-bearing of each waterlily.
“Can I get the diameter?” one person commented on San Francisco’s entry. “For my spreadsheet.”
No matter how people engage with the contest, it’s a win for the folks who tend to the plants year-round.
“I think the biggest thing that we enjoy is that it’s an entry point for people to get excited about plants and learn about plants,” Denver Botanic Gardens’ former associate director of communications Erin Bird said last year.
“It’s part fun, like this goofy playful competition, then also part education, so it’s a really great way to introduce people to the wonder of plants.”
To see all of the available entries so far, check out the links below, and stay tuned to see the rest of the entries roll in before August 24:
- Atlanta Botanical Garden (Georgia, USA)
- Birmingham Botanical Gardens (England)
- Bok Tower Gardens (Florida, USA)
- Botanica, The Wichita Gardens (Kansas, USA)
- Brookgreen Gardens (South Carolina, USA)
- Brooklyn Botanic Garden (New York, USA)
- Cambridge University Botanic Garden (England)
- Chicago Botanic Garden (Illinois, USA)
- Cleveland Botanical Garden (Ohio, USA)
- Como Zoo Conservatory (Minnesota, USA)
- Conservatory of Flowers (California, USA)
- Denver Botanic Gardens (Colorado, USA)
- Desert City (Spain)
- The Eden Project (England)
- Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens (Ohio, USA)
- Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- The Hudson Gardens (Colorado, USA)
- The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens (California, USA)
- Huntsville Botanical Garden (Alabama, USA)
- Longwood Gardens (Pennsylvania, USA)
- McKee Botanical Gardens (Florida, USA)
- Missouri Botanical Garden (Missouri, USA)
- The Morton Arboretum (Illinois, USA)
- Naples Botanical Garden (Florida, USA)
- New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill (Massachusetts, USA)
- New Orleans Botanical Garden (Louisiana, USA)
- New York Botanical Garden (New York, USA)
- Powell Gardens (Missouri, USA)
- Royal Botanical Gardens Canada (Ontario, Canada)
- Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Scotland)
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (England)
- Royal Botanic Garden Sydney (Australia)
- San Diego Botanic Garden (California, USA)
- Sarah P. Duke Gardens (North Carolina, USA)
- Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden (South Africa)
- The Toledo Zoo (Ohio, USA)
- University of Bonn Botanic Garden (Germany)
- University of California, Davis, Botanical Conservatory (California, USA)
- University of California, Los Angeles, Mathias Botanical Garden (California, USA)
- U.S. Botanic Garden (Washington D.C., USA)
- Ventnor Botanic Garden (England)
Header images courtesy of Denver Botanic Gardens
