Twenty-three years ago, I smelled my first water lily and have been enchanted ever since.  My passion for water lilies increased as I imported water lilies from around the world and I started Garden Ponds Nursery.  When I reached 120 different varieties of water lilies at Garden Ponds I called my mentor, Betsy Sakata, on Oahu to share my excitement.  She said, “Ken, you should only have 21 of the best water lilies for Kauai so you know each one intimately; don’t overwhelm, and confuse your customers.  After some discussion, we settled on 42 different varieties.

We have brought to Kauai 42 of the best water lilies from which to choose.  This process of choosing the easiest, most beautiful, most adaptive, and the best smelling water lily is always a group decision at Garden Ponds.

Some of the most rewarding moments at Garden Ponds are when I see the excitement a customer has for a water lily and keeps coming back for more.  There have been many personal stories shared of how the water lily has added enchantment into their lives.

Mosquito Control:

Creating a water container garden with a water lily is natures best trap for mosquitoes!  The mosquitoes need to lay their eggs in still water. Our recommendation is three fish in each water container garden to take care of all the hatching mosquitoes, thus reducing the number of mosquitoes in your yard.  We do not feed our fish any food, and we recommend the platy as the best fish on Kauai to be part of your balanced eco-system.

The only place I know that has as many water container gardens per capita as Kauai is the island of Bali.  My visit to Bali fueled my passion for water container gardening and taught me the effects of fish in water gardens to lessen the mosquito population.