A water lily pond, together with the variety of plants used for decorating its margin, offers a quick and rewarding means of "landscaping" a new place. Under fair conditions, a pond of average size can be visualized in the early summer, constructed, "cured," planted, and brought into full bloom in four to six weeks. What a refreshing sight a pond is for a family in a new home while they wait for grass and shrubbery to take hold.

Ponds are remarkably varied and adaptive. A "pond" may be a farm pond, big as a city block, with free-growing species of water lilies scattered over it like a sky full of stars. In the suburbs or city a pond may be roughly the size of a living-room rug, a sunken affair of concrete in the side, front, or back yard; or it may be really tiny, a garden spot taking up no more room than a lawn chair-a little living bouquet, all the more beautiful for its small and intimate setting.

A pond in a new landscape can become the center of interest around which the rest of the garden is designed. A new pond placed in an old and loved garden will bring added magic by reflecting and complementing the flowers already there. And, speaking of magic, I think a shimmering water surface set into a garden is the best possible way to bring a patch of sky down to earth and make it part of the landscape. From a picture window, a pond of water lilies is a lovely, refreshing sight and colorful for a long season. By the strategic placement of a pond just outside a window, a gardener can bring the beauty and serenity of water-borne flowers right into the house.

Expensewise, water gardening also is widely varied. With a tub, half-barrel, or similar container, a man can sink a miniature pond in his yard-and plant it with practically any water lily he wants-for less than he would spend for a new hat. With only average handiness with tools, he can build a concrete pond big enough for the whole neighborhood to enjoy for as little as fifty dollars.

The maintenance of a water garden requires practically no work at all. There is no hoeing, no weeding, no watering. Given a fair chance, water lilies will not only grow and bloom - they will thrive. There are few diseases and insect pests that affect them, none that destroys them.

I hope I am not dwelling too long on the practical aspects of water lilies. I would want you to consider that, with the possible exception of their wonderful therapeutic value and the satisfying outlet they provide for artistic expression, water lilies have no practical use whatsoever. They are a sheer, out-and-out luxury, existing solely and completely for whatever pleasure their beauty and fragrance may give you.

There are only two basic types of water lilies-hardy and tropical. They are cousins, so to speak, but nobody so far has been able to crossbreed them.

Hardy water lilies are, for the most part, perennials which propagate themselves without any help from the gardener. Once planted and left undisturbed, even though ice covers the pond in winter, they will burst into new life from the original root each spring for several years.

Hardy lilies, some no larger than the face of a pocket watch, some a foot or more in diameter, come in many tints and shades of every color except blue. Some of them float upon the water among their round, smooth-edged leaves. Others, reaching for the sun, stand above the water. Many are fragrant.

The "hardies" open their flowers to the sun in the forenoon and stay open until late afternoon. They begin blooming in May in most parts of the United States and continue until frost.

"Tropicals" might be called annuals, for they are so handled by most casual water gardeners. They differ in many ways from the hardies. They require more pond space because they grow bigger in both blossoms and leaves, which are frequently scalloped or frilled along the edge. They must be planted outside a bit later than the hardies, but they grow rapidly and their blooms open by midsummer and continue to appear long past the time when September frosts put the hardies to sleep for the winter.

Tropicals come in many shades and tints, including blues and purples, but there are few yellows. Yellow is comparatively rare in any type of water lily. Tropicals bear their blossoms on stiff, strong stems which carry most of the blooms well above the surface of a pond.

Tropical water lilies are of two kinds-day bloomers and night bloomers. Day bloomers open their flowers, like the hardy lilies, in the forenoon, closing them in the late afternoon. Practically every day-blooming tropical has a fine fragrance.

The night-blooming tropicals open their blooms around 6 to 7 o'clock in the evening and close them about 11 o'clock the following morning. In dull weather, particularly in the East, they will stay open all day. This blooming pattern, which enables even the busiest commuter to see them at their best twice a day, has caused them to be called "the businessman's flower." Only a few of the night-blooming tropicals are fragrant.