德国 梦幻睡莲 Traumseerose – 德国睡莲销往欧洲数十国

从鱼缸到温室

瓦苏·马尼卡姆（Vasu Manickam）来自马来西亚，九十年代末因为爱情定居德国黑尔福德。他起先是养鱼，拿到一间空出来的温室后改种睡莲，主业一直在餐饮业，是黑尔福德一家餐厅的经理。

他前后试了八年，2011 年才育出第一株能露地过冬的睡莲，按他自己的说法，这在全世界是第三个，在欧洲是第一个。2014 年他以评委身份参加过一届睡莲世界冠军赛，一年后才把自己的品种送去参赛。

世界冠军 ‘Manickam’

2015 年国际睡莲与水景园艺协会的新品种评比在丹佛植物园举行，二十个品种分三个组别，十月中旬开花后由十二位各国评委打分。马尼卡姆的 ‘Manickam’ 拿了耐寒睡莲组第一名，同组第二名是 Florian Henaux 的 ‘Darjeeling’；总冠军是泰国育种家 Nopchai Chansilpa 的 ‘Srichon’，热带组第一名归佛罗里达水生植物苗圃的 ‘Valentine’。当年十一月底消息传到黑尔福德，正式奖状到 2016 年 6 月才发下来。

冠军花以他去世的父亲命名，母株那株叫 ‘Nymphea Letchumy’，是纪念母亲的。让他被记住的是花瓣数：德国水景园艺协会的会刊写道，这是有记录以来花瓣形状最规整的一株睡莲，最多数到过 528 片；他自己也说，这是他见过花瓣最多的一个。这株花大约从 2017 年起才在市面销售。

五百个组合和两个方向

2017 年他建了第二座温室，里面挖了两个大水池，之前耐寒睡莲只能在木桶里养。手上同时有约五百个自育品种在测试，从授粉到长成能开花的植株要四年，留不留要看抗寒和开花量。

他手上主要在做两件事：把热带睡莲和耐寒睡莲杂交，做出淡紫到蓝色之间的亚属间品种；再就是做花小的睡莲，送给没有池塘、只能在露台或阳台用盆养的人。到 2020 年他有三座温室、两千个睡莲品种、约 220 个莲属品种，另有挺水和沉水植物。他给一个多特蒙德游乐园的请求培育了以家乡命名的 ‘Herford’；世界上最小的睡莲 Thermarum 原产卢旺达、几近绝种，他重新繁殖成功，一部分又送回波恩植物园。

目录里现在卖什么

店铺分类一直按植物分：睡莲分热带日开与夜开、澳洲系、独家系列、杂交系和耐寒的小型、中型、大型，莲属分微型碗栽到大型，王莲属两系，水生植物另有挺水、浮叶和增氧三类，还有鸢尾、雨百合、观叶水生植物、配件、礼券和冷水鱼。育家和经销商的目录页另开成栏：Ten Mile Creek、Bergen Watergarden、Florida Aquatic、HXT 和泰国育种家 Pairat Songpanich。

不过现在能买到的只有三款新品：Stromboli 160 欧元、Demoiselle 169 欧元、Zenith 139 欧元。2024 年初的存档里，这家店还有八百多个商品页，如今只剩八十来个页面，以前的商品地址大多已经失效，连 ‘Manickam – Weltmeister Seerose’ 的老页面也打不开了——2021 年它标价 150 欧元，中等株型，粉红偏洋红。自己的品种里 ‘Horst Wirshing’ 是 Thermarum 与 colorata 的杂交，只在他家卖，以第一位客户兼朋友命名；架子上还有 ‘Puttaruksa – 2020 IWGS Champion’ 和 ‘Jakaphong – Champion Seerose’ 这些带奖牌的名字。

怎么买、怎么发

运费分三档：德国境内保价 DHL 包裹 7.49 欧元，欧盟境内 19.99 欧元，欧盟以外 33.50 欧元；境内三到五天，境外五到七天，周日和节假日不派送，可送国家约三十个。付款以银行转账预付为主，另收 PayPal、Amazon Pay、Sofort、giropay 等即时支付，货到付款另收手续费；2020 年 2 月起，店里是 FairCommerce 倡议的成员。

发货按品类排日子：莲属 4 月 10 日，耐寒睡莲和耐寒水生植物 4 月 15 日，热带睡莲和 Colocasia 5 月 15 日，热带水生植物 5 月 20 日。活苗只在周一到周三、气温到 10 摄氏度以上才发，因为苗子按自己的节奏长，送货日期没法次次保证，店家更希望顾客自己上门取。莲属页面上还挂着一条通知：2025 年 3 月起恢复供货，可以预订。有事用 WhatsApp、邮件或电话找店里，客服电话工作日九点到十七点有人。

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From a Fish Tank to a Greenhouse

Vasu Manickam came from Malaysia and settled in Herford, Germany, for love in the late nineties. He started out keeping aquariums, then took over a greenhouse that had become available and began growing water lilies there. His day job stayed in the restaurant trade, where he still ran a kitchen in Herford.

He experimented for eight years before breeding his first hardy variety in 2011, which by his own account was the third such plant in the world and the first in Europe. In 2014 he attended a waterlily world championship as a juror, and only a year later sent one of his own seedlings into competition.

A World Champion Called Manickam

The 2015 IWGS New Waterlily Competition was held at Denver Botanic Gardens, where twenty entries in three categories reached flowering size in time to be judged in mid-October by a panel of twelve judges from several countries. Manickam’s ‘Manickam’ took first place in the hardy class, with Florian Henaux’s ‘Darjeeling’ second; the best newcomer overall was Nopchai Chansilpa’s ‘Srichon’, and the tropical class went to ‘Valentine’ from Florida Aquatic Nurseries. The news reached Herford at the end of November that year; the official award followed only in June 2016.

The winning lily carries the name of his late father, while the mother stock, ‘Nymphea Letchumy’, remembers his mother. What stuck was the petal count: the journal of the German society of water garden friends calls it the water lily with the most regularly formed petals ever recorded, counting up to 528 of them, and he describes it as the largest petal count he has seen anywhere. The plant only went on sale around 2017.

Five Hundred Crossings, Two Directions

In 2017 he built a second greenhouse with two large ponds, since hardy lilies had previously been raised in tubs. Around five hundred of his own selections were in test at that time, and it takes about four years from pollination to a plant fit to flower; whether a cross is kept depends on its winter hardiness and how freely it blooms.

Two lines of work dominate. One crosses tropical with hardy lilies to produce shades between lilac and blue; the other produces small-flowered lilies for people without a pond who can only grow them in containers on a terrace or balcony. By 2020 he ran three greenhouses with two thousand water lily varieties and about two hundred and twenty lotus varieties, plus marsh and submerged plants. He bred a lily named after his home city at the request of an amusement park in Dortmund, and bred up the world’s smallest water lily, Nymphaea thermarum, nearly extinct and native to Rwanda, returning part of it to the Botanical Gardens in Bonn.

What the Shop Sells Now

The range has always been sorted by plant: water lilies in tropical day and night bloomers, an Australian series, an exclusive series, intersubgeneric hybrids and hardy types from mini to large; lotus from micro-bowl to large; both Victoria species; pond plants split into emergent, floating and oxygenating groups; plus iris, rain lilies, foliage aquatics, accessories, gift vouchers and coldwater fish. Separate pages cover the breeders and suppliers he deals with: Ten Mile Creek, Bergen Watergarden, Florida Aquatic, HXT and the Thai breeder Pairat Songpanich.

Only three new introductions are actually on sale now: Stromboli at 160 euros, Demoiselle at 169 and Zenith at 139. An archived snapshot from early 2024 shows the shop with more than eight hundred product pages; the site now carries only about eighty pages, and most of the old product addresses no longer resolve, including the old page for ‘Manickam – Weltmeister Seerose’, which was listed at 150 euros in 2021 as a medium plant in pink to magenta. Among his own seedlings, ‘Horst Wirshing’ is a cross of Nymphaea thermarum and N. colorata sold only here and named after his first customer and friend; the shelves also hold names carrying awards, such as ‘Puttaruksa – 2020 IWGS Champion’ and ‘Jakaphong – Champion Seerose’.

Ordering, Shipping and the Season

Shipping falls into three tiers: an insured DHL parcel at 7.49 euros within Germany, 19.99 within the EU and 33.50 outside it, with delivery in three to five days at home and five to seven days abroad, nothing going out on Sundays or public holidays, across roughly thirty destination countries. Payment is mainly by transfer in advance, with PayPal, Amazon Pay, Sofort and giropay accepted as instant payment systems and a surcharge applying to cash on delivery. Since February 2020 the shop has been a member of the FairCommerce initiative.

Dispatch is scheduled by group: lotus from 10 April, hardy water lilies and hardy pond plants from 15 April, tropical water lilies and Colocasia from 15 May, tropical pond plants from 20 May. Living plants go out only from Monday to Wednesday and once the temperature is above 10 degrees; because plants grow on their own schedule the delivery date cannot be met every time, and the shop would rather have customers collect in person. The lotus page still carries a notice that deliveries resume from March 2025 and can be pre-ordered. Questions go to WhatsApp, email or phone, with someone on the service line on weekdays between nine and five.