Water Gardening History
| Water gardening amongst the masses is a very young past-time. It was not until the late 1950s and 1960s that the general public had ready access to water gardening. The main obstacle was the cost of creating major constructions in concrete.
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 Water gardening was originally the preserve of the wealthy and nobility.
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| Also the fact that there was relatively little literature around to instruct and inspire potential water gardeners. Everything was directed to the use of water in parks and the large country houses of the wealthy. The advent of fibreglass pre-formed ponds, as well as polythene and PVC pond liners, revolutionised the embryo water gardening industry. This was also at a time when the garden centre concept was evolving, first in the United States, then Europe and finally across the rest of the globe. The growing of plants in cans to enable them to be transplanted at any time of the year, and the practice that evolved from this, embraced the fledgling aquatic industry. So one would assume from this that water gardening does not have much of an interesting history, but the opposite is true.
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 The advent of pre-formed ponds heralded a water gardening revolution.
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Although the history of domestic water gardening has few notable landmarks the long involvement of man with aquatic plants, pond fish and moving water has left a legacy of fascinating facts and stories. Not only has this history greatly advanced the water gardening hobby, but it has a profound effect upon other aspects of life.
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One of the most notable is in construction, where the legendary Victorian gardener and engineer, Sir Joseph Paxton, used the structure of the leaf of the newly introduced giant waterlily as a basis for his design of the Crystal Palace in London, a technique which was adopted and adapted extensively for the glasshouse construction industry. This section of the website chronicles some of these milestones in water gardening history for both the enthusiastic water gardener and serious student of horticulture.
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 The design of the Crystal Palace in London was based on the structure of a Victoria waterlily leaf.
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America 
Australia 
Canada 
Europe 
International 
New Zealand 
South Africa 
United Kingdom 
