N. 'Hickory Bend Blush'.
Descriptions by Charles Leach.
Hickory Bend Blush is an example of irony at its best. I purchased two of those, half live at best, water lily tubers in a box from China at Walmart a few years ago. A plant that was purchase, full well expecting that it would not grow, became one of our favorites. I made the purchase nearly a month before I was to give a seminar to a master gardeners in a nearby town to show what a rip off the imported tubers from China were. I left one untouched so it could be opened at the seminar to show the dried up stub of a tuber and planted the tuber from the other, expecting to be able to report that it had not sprouted. Surprisingly, what appeared to be a dead tuber not only sprouted but grew and bloomed that same year. A second surprise was that the flower was not that of a Fabiola, which it was supposed to be, but a unique flower that changed from bright pink the first day to snow white on the third day. Since then it has become one of our favorites and been named Hickory Bend Blush. H.B. Blush is a hardy water lily. It has 5-7" flowers changing from medium pink to white, a leaf spread of about 3'-4' (90-120cm) and green 8"-10" (20-25 cm) leaves.