Andreas Protopapas


The first time we heard about Andreas Protopapas and his hybrids was in London in 2010.
We were visiting Kew Botanical Gardens and had the chance to enjoy his hybrids there. They were just outside the Waterlily House, in a narrow but very long pool, solely for them and they caught our eye instantly.
Sadly enough the plants were full of bugs, but even then you could see how beautiful these hybrids really were. Wonderful colours, nice leaves and good shapes. Everything a good hybridizer wishes for.

Nymphaea John wedgwood
Nymphaea John wedgwood

Don’t start dreaming yet, unfortunately, these lovely waterlilies are not for sale.  We find it very admirable of Andreas that he sees them as little germs and not as sales items.  He only donated his waterlilies to Kew and RHS Wisley, because they are non profit organisations and thus will not be putting his hybrids on sale.  However we would love to see them at more gardens, so we won’t have to travel to England to enjoy them.
We think Andreas is the only hybridizer we know, who does not sell his plants, it goes without saying he is not the average hybridizer.

Stanley Angus Skinger
© Andreas Protopapas Nymphaea Stanley Angus Skinger

Andreas Protopapas was born in London, England on the 30th of November in 1954. His parents moved to Cyprus when he was 7 years old. When he turned 16 they moved back to London, to stay there until 1984, when Andreas went back to Cyprus for good.

He has two memories from this childhood in London, when he was around 5 years old.  The first one was when he saw an old broken TV and he was playing around with the switches. Knowing that he now has a BSC degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and a MSC in Microwave Radar and Modern optics, that must have been a very important moment in his early life.

Watergarden Andreas

The second one is even more important, well for us anyway!  That’s the memory of his father taking him to a watergarden! When they got back, Andreas started playing in the garden, trying to make a small pond.

The first real big pond, was build almost 26 years later, in 1985, when he just moved back to Cyprus.  He build this concrete pond at his parents house and planted his very first waterlily in it!  He chose the more then 100 years old Nymphaea Marliacea Chromatella.  In those days the water lilies in Cyprus, were rare, they were either white, red or yellow.
The best place to see Andreas hybrids is the Nicosia municipal Gardens that is opposite the Cyprus house of parliament. Most of the hybrids mention can be seen here.
Now, more than 35 years later, he has a collection of more then 100 varieties!

Two years later, in 1987, he started hybridizing, his objective was to create a hardy blue. At that time blue was missing from the hardy range.  His aim in hybridizing was to create a waterlily that had a large number of petals and  a small spread with many flowers in a season. It should be hardy and have a unique colour like blue or cyan.
Therefore he applied for an import license so he could bring in a large number of species and hybrids, that he needed for his experiments. He always uses seed producing hybrids, as female parent.
A few years later, when Andreas turned 40, he made his first wonderful waterlily with all these characteristics, except for the blue color.  Anyway the first Protopapas hybrid was born and named after his daughter, Maria.

Nymphaea Hardy Blue
© Andreas Protopapas Nymphaea Hardy Blue

10 years later, turning 50, he even surpassed his abilities with the first award ever for a Cypriot hybridizer with his beautiful Nymphaea Niki, named after his wife.
When Andreas Protopapas turned 60, he finally obtained what he was aiming for or dreaming of,  a stunning Nymphaea Hardy Blue!

Questions

We asked Andreas what waterlily is his favourite hybrid.

Het told us that is was Nymphaea John Wedgwood, seems like a logical answer because this beauty won the award for best new hardy in 2008.

We also asked him what his favourite waterlily of all times was.

That would be the Nymphaea Colorado, again we can only agree, this really is a top plant.

And of course we are curious which waterlily is on his wishlist

That seemed to be another award winning waterlily, Nymphaea Deva by Michael Duff (best dwarf waterlily in the IWGS competition of 1997)

And we were also curious about his favourit hybridizer

The best hybridizer for him is Latour Marliac. He has started with only a few waterlily species and has managed to create such a large variety of hybrids.

Next we asked for his favourite watergarden.

This is always a good way to get to know new places.  Andreas talks about Longstock Park Water Gardens (John Lewis Partnership) in England.  We had to look it up, but it does look like a beautiful place to visit if we ever go back to England.

And last but not least we asked which watergarden was on his to visit list.

That turned out to be one of the prettiest gardens we have ever visited, being Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.  The other name he gave us was Latour-Marliac Nurseries in France, again we have to agree.

Nymphaea Niki
Nymphaea Niki
Nymphaea Aphrodite 2002
Nymphaea Aphrodite 2002
Nymphaea Efestus
Nymphaea Efestus
Nymphaea Thalia 2002
Nymphaea Thalia 2002
Nymphaea Nefelis 2003
Nymphaea Nefelis 2003
Nymphaea Cyrpiana
Nymphaea Cyrpiana
Nymphaea Elli Chari
Nymphaea Elli Chari
Nymphaea Amphitriti
Nymphaea Amphitriti
© Andreas Protopapas Nymphaea Cyprus Pink Star
Nymphaea Maria 1994
Nymphaea Maria 1994

List of Hybrids

  1. Nymphaea Maria 1994
  2. Nymphaea Niki 2001
  3. Nymphaea John Wedgwood 2005
  4. Nymphaea Aphrodite 2002
  5. Nymphaea Efestus 2002
  6. Nymphaea Thalia 2002
  7. Nymphaea Nefelis 2003
  8. Nymphaea Stanley Angus Skinger 2005
  9. Nymphaea Cyprus Pink Star
  10. Nymphaea Cyrpiana
  11. Nymphaea Elli Chari
  12. Nymphaea Amphitriti
  13. Nymphaea Hardy Blue 2014

 

Andreas & Victoria
Garden

List of Awards

  1. 2004 New Waterlily Competition
    • 2nd Place Hardy with Niki
  2. 2006 New Waterlily Competition
    • 2nd Place Best New Hardy with Niki
  3. 2007 New Waterlily Competition
    • 2nd Place Best New Hardy with John Wedgwood
  4. 2008 New Waterlily Competition
    • Best New Hardy with John Wedgwood
  5. 2009 New Waterlily Competition
    • 2nd Place Best New Hardy with Cyprus Pink Star

Websites

If you want to read more about this wonderful man, here are a few websites:

  1. Andreas Protopapas website
    http://nymphaea.awardspace.com/default.htm
  2. Victoria adventure with an article on Andreas Protopapas
    http://www.victoria-adventure.org/waterlilies/andreas/andreas_profile.html
  3. An article from 2004, after he won an award with the beautiful Nymphaea Niki
    http://www.victoria-adventure.org/waterlilies/andreas_hybrids/cyprus_mail_article.html
  

 

Waterlily names

As you can see in our database we always try to understand where the name of a variety comes from.  Because we don’t have any of Andreas waterlilies in our nursery, because they are not for sale, we just added the list here.

  1. Nymphaea John Wedgwood
    named after the founder of the Royal Horticultural Society, you can read the story here.
  2. Nymphaea Efestus
    named after the Greek god of fire Efestus due to the waterlilys deep red colour.
  3. Nymphaea Stanley Angus Skinger
    named after  a good friend of Andreas Protopapas that has supplied him with a lot of plants that he used for his hybrid creations.
  4. Nymphaea Niki
    named after his wife Niki. The name Niki means winner.
  5. Nymphaea Maria
    named after his Daughter Maria and was his very first hybrid.
  6. Nymphaea Cyrpiana
    named after the country that he lives in, that is Cyprus.
  7. Nymphaea Thalia
    named after the Latin American actress and singer Thalia.
  8. Nymphaea Elli Chari
    named after a Lady in Cyprus that has kindly provided the water that he uses in his ponds.
  9. Nymphaea Aphrodite
    named after the Greek mythology goddess Aphrodite that its birthplace was in Cyprus.
  10. Nymphaea Nefelis
    named after a Greek mythology 
    cloud nymph.
  11. Nymphaea Amphitriti
    named after Amphitrite, in Greek mythology, the goddess of the sea, wife of the god Poseidon.
  12. Nymphaea Cyprus Pink Star.
    named because it is a star shaped, pink waterlily, made in Cyprus.