Dieter Bechthold


The striped waterlily.

Nymphaea Zores 2002
Nymphaea Zores 2002

If you know the waterlily-world a little bit, you probably heard about the name Dieter Bechthold.  He amazed everyone with his striped waterlily in 2003, Nymphaea Pattern Ruby. It is a red waterlily with white stripes.  His idea was to make a red Nymphaea Arc-en-Ciel.  Dieter Bechthold was really surprised he ended up with a striped flower as well as flecked leaves. His waterlilies are very hard to get, it’s impossible to buy them in local stores. We only have one, the Nymphaea Zores, we love her so much that we really wanted to get to know the hybridiser.

Dieter Bechthold: his story

Dieter Bechthold is a social scientist and lives in Wuppertal, Germany.  A small village north of Köln, you might know it from the Schwebebahn… This suspension monorail was built in the early 1900’s. 85,000 passengers use it daily to travel through the city without the problems of junctions or traffic jams. It is scarcely troubled by ice and snow. With a top speed of 60 kph, the airy ride from terminus to terminus takes almost 35 minutes. On the 13.3-kilometre-long route there are 20 stations altogether, the art-nouveau station Werther Brücke contrasting with the ultra-modern glass construction at the station Kluse, which was opened in 1999.

For Dieter it all started about 80 years later, in 1981. That’s when he was able to finally make a water feature in his garden, so his search for the perfect waterlily for this small pond began.  He chose the Nymphaea Laydekeri Purpurata, bought from Jurgen & Robert Peter in Solingen. Of course, as we all know too well, during that time a lot of waterlilies were wrongly named.  It wasn’t really a Laydekeri Purpurata, but a Nymphaea Froebeli.  Also red, also small, so it didn’t really matter to him.

About 15 years later, Dieter Bechthold had the opportunity to build a bigger pond, one where he could house around 20 varieties.  Again, he started to search for the correct and appropriate waterlilies for this water garden.  He used “Seerosen für den Gartenteich” from Egon Petrowsky to help him with this. His first stop was at Firma Oldehoff  where he bought 3 varieties, the Nymphaea Escarboucle, the Nymphaea Pygmaea Alba and the Nymphaea William Falconer.  Later on he visited Gärtnerei Stauden Junge and bought a Nymphaea Rosennymphe, a Nymphaea Hermine and of course a Nymphaea Fritz Junge.  From Robert Peter from Solingen he bought  Fire Crest, James Brydon , Rose Arey and a few other varieties.  Some good friends gave him Nymphaea Masaniello and the beautiful Pöstlingberg.  Some varieties he couldn’t keep, he had bad experiences with other ones like Nymphaea Sioux, Indiana and Berthold.  Dieter Bechthold also bought some Amercian varieties from Karl Wachter and Eberhard Schuster, one of those was the magnificent Perry’s Fire Opal. His pond started to get a little full.

His favourites, yes we all do have those, were Nymphaea James Brydon (it’s an enormous bloomer and she has a nice colour) and the Fritz Junge (beautiful shape).  Of course the Perry’s Fire Opal was his favourite American variety, every flower was worth waiting for, we know the feeling.

Dieter Bechthold knew from his books that most of the waterlilies were sterile so he was very surprised when he saw some viable seeds with his Fire Crest.  Those 30 seeds were not that spectacular and he only kept 2 seedlings, named Nymphaea Lilofee and Nymphaea Matscho.  Soon after he discovered that not only Fire Crest gave seeds, but also the Rose Arey and the Fritz Junge.  In 1998 he started hybridising, putting plastic bags around the seedpods and taking the seedlings inside for winter. He put those seeds in flowerpots with 4 cm of soil and 2 to 4 cm water on top.  In April or may the next year, they started  to sprout in the greenhouse.  Dieter Bechthold only had a very small greenhouse and some of the seedlings ended up inside the house, yes, we all know that feeling.  Those already started sprouting in February.  When the seedlings had 2 to 3 floating leaves, around June, he put hem in 9×9 cm pots back inside the greenhouse.

He selected the ones to keep based on growth, leaf shape and colour.  His believe is that when a leaf has a wide open sinus, the flowers will be star shaped, when then sinus is overlapping, the flowers will be cup shaped.  It takes about 2 to 3 years before you can admire your first flower, at that time he puts them in 10 litre pots outside.  After a few years, he decides if there are worth keeping. Dieter Bechthold wants waterlilies with flowers that stay open late, goof bloomers and of course new colours. De flower shape is not so important in his selection, but he has a small preference for star shaped flowers.

Most of the seedlings, resemble their parents and are not innovative enough to keep, those are thrown away or given away.  Sometimes nevertheless, he gets taken by surprise, like  Nymphaea Pattern Ruby or Nymphaea Potzblitz.
Dieter Bechthold wrote a book, together with Harro Hieronimus, it’s called “Seerosen-Blütenzauber im Gartenteich. If you understand German, it’s definitely worth to buy this one, well it’s worth it anyway, you can always look at the 350 pictures. 🙂
Below you find the list of Dieter Bechthold hybrids, as mentioned on his website.  As you can see, he stopped more than 10 years ago with hybridising.  It’s also very difficult to buy any of his hybrids.

  1. Nymphaea Alibaba 1999 N. Fritz Junge x N. William Falconer
  2. Nymphaea Kleiner Muck 1999 N. candida x N.Rose Arey
  3. Nymphaea Lilofee 1999 seedling Firecrest
  4. Nymphaea Matscho 1999 seedling Firecrest
  5. Nymphaea Ave 2000
  6. Nymphaea Bella Vista 2000 N. Rose Arey x N. Perry’s Fire Opal
  7. Nymphaea Fatima 2000 N. candida x N. Rose Arey
  8. Nymphaea Holla 2000
  9. Nymphaea Juchhu 2000 N. Perry’s Fire Opal x N. Wow
  10. Nymphaea Oho 2000 N. Perry’s Fire Opal x N. Wow
  11. Nymphaea Potzblitz 2000 N. Perry’s Fire Opal x N. Wow
  12. Nymphaea Rosemarie 2000
  13. Nymphaea Rotkäppchen 2000 N. Perry’s Fire Opal x N. Wow
  14. Nymphaea Viva 2000
  15. Nymphaea Agape 2001
  16. Nymphaea Brio 2001
  17. Nymphaea Eros 2001 N. Perry’s Fire Opal x N. Wow
  18. Nymphaea Fruchtriese 2001 N. Potzblitz x N. Peter Slocum
  19. Nymphaea Liliput 2001 seedling N. Rose Arey
  20. Nymphaea Ludus 2001
  21. Nymphaea Lumos 2001 N. Potzblitz x N. Peter Slocum
  22. Nymphaea Milchstrasse 2001
  23. Nymphaea Rosenrot 2001
  24. Nymphaea Schnuppe 2001 seedling N. Matscho
  25. Nymphaea Sterntaler 2001 N. Rose Arey x N. William Falconer
  26. Nymphaea Belami 2002  Rotkäppchen x N. Perry’s Fire Opal
  27. Nymphaea Bola 2002
  28. Nymphaea Lampion 2002 seedling N. Potzblitz
  29. Nymphaea Lonesome Star 2002  N. candida x N. Arc-en-Ciel
  30. Nymphaea Luzifer 2001
  31. Nymphaea Sensea 2002 seedling Potzblitz
  32. Nymphaea Zores 2002 N. Wow x N. Potzblitz
  33. Nymphaea Ad Ada 2003 N. Liliput x N. tetragona
  34. Nymphaea Ade 2003 N. arc-en-Ciel x N. Rotkäppchen
  35. Nymphaea Agape 2003 N. Perry’s Fire Opal x N. Wow
  36. Nymphaea Allotria 2003 N.tetragona x N. Maurice Laydeker
  37. Nymphaea Bravo 2003 Zaailing N. Fritz Junge
  38. Nymphaea Fried Egg 2003 N. Arc-en-Ciel x N. Rotkäppchen collaboration with Christian Meyer
  39. Nymphaea Mellow Medley 2003 N. Arc-en-Ciel x N. Potzblitz
  40. Nymphaea Montevideo 2003 N. Wow x N. Rotkäppchen
  41. Nymphaea Outlook 2003 N. Arc-en-Ciel x pollenmix
  42. Nymphaea Pattern Ruby 2003 N. Arc-en-Ciel x N. Rotkäppchen
  43. Nymphaea Sputnik 2003 N. Arc-en-Ciel x N. Rotkäppchen
  44. Nymphaea Tamina 2003 N. Arc-en-Ciel x N. Rotkäppchen
  45. Nymphaea Velo 2004
  46. Nymphaea Ad Ada 2006 hybrid of tetragona
  47. Nymphaea Happy 2006 hybrid of helvola
  48. Nymphaea Maestoso 2006
  49. Nymphaea Patchwork 2006

On the 5th of July 2003 he gave a lecture in Walderbach for the “Gesellschaft der Wassergarten”, you can read it on his website.  On the 24th of July 2005 there was a camera crew “Gartengeschichten” from  WDR at his home.  The filmed for more than 8 hours and mad a compilation about 10 minutes.  That day the, Nymphaea Tamina was baptised, named after the host of the show.

Dieter Bechthold his website.

You can check out his varieties on the well known website Victoria-adventure.