Thalia dealbata

A spectacular pond plant.

We visited Beth Chatto's garden today.  A really lovely, accessible garden.  Not so big as to be overwhelming, many of the plants labelled, some interesting and spectacular combinations.  

This plant was not labelled, but we managed to identify it when in the sales area.  I was very tempted, but it was rather pricy, and I have some concerns about how big it could get.

However, on seeing how many hoverflies are on this (when taking the photo, I thought the brown areas were probably "past it" bits of the flower) I am sorely tempted once again.  Wikipedia says it isn't frost hardy, but Beth Chatto website say that they grow it under 30cm water, and it does ok.  Maybe?  Another day.  Though I sadly have to admit, we probably don't have enough depth of soil in the deeper part of our pond, and we obviously can't dig through the pond liner!

We did buy "a few" other plants!  We'll be busy finding space for them once we get home.