In 1906, George Pring needed to decide where he would work. His choice would both change and enrich many lives, offering our gardens beauty unmatched before.
George Harry Ethelbert Pring was born December 2, 1885, in Devonshire, England, the youngest of four children of Charles and Mahalla Pring. Charles was a successful builder in Exmouth until the ‘Depression’ hit, and the family moved to the London area. Young George grew up about two blocks from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Upon reaching the highest level of school at the time, about the seventh grade, George took on an apprenticeship at Kew.
Both father and son figured that George would follow in his father’s business and someday end up in the building profession. Charles Pring told his son, “We can always make an architect out of you later on,” when he learned of the Kew apprenticeship.
Just shy of his 14th birthday, Pring began work at Kew each morning at 6:00. Breakfast and a lunch hour were at eight and twelve respectively. The day ended at 6:00 p.m. Cleaning pots, feeding the chickens, and packing plants for shipment were part of Pring’s early duties.
As time went on, he took charge of the carnivorous plants and eventually was also put in charge of two of the orchid houses. Finally, some training on the actual grounds gave Pring a well-rounded, horticultural experience. The best possible education in horticulture in the early 1900’s was a two-year training program at the Queen’s School of the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. During the evening classes, Pring began to sit in on the lectures, since he was not yet the mandatory 21-years-of-age necessary to enter the program. Pring took notes and attended the lectures for practice, hoping one day to enter the program. At one point, he turned in his lecture book, along with all the regular students, to be graded. Receiving good marks, the lecture book captured the eye of the Director. Barely 19, young George was inducted into the Kew program as the youngest student ever.
From England to St. Louis: A Young Horticulturist Finds His Path
With the end of his second year, anticipating employment, Pring learned of positions at other botanical gardens. The first position was at the Botanical Gardens of Calcutta, India, and the second was at Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) in St. Louis. Missouri Botanical Garden was looking for someone to take charge of the orchids. Pring was told that he would make a better American than an Indian. Being just 20, Pring needed his parents’ permission to go to America.
“You’re far too young,” his parents told him. Finally, George’s father stated, “I’m going to say to you that you decide for yourself. It’s your career. It’ll be your future.” Ten days after George H. Pring said yes, he began to work at Missouri Botanical Garden.
In the late winter of 1906, with 6 inches of snow on the ground, George Pring arrived at Missouri Botanical Garden. He would stay for 63 years. Over those years MBG changed quite a bit, and some of the fantastic growth would not have taken place were it not for George H. Pring.
When Pring was shown the orchids at MBG, he challenged himself to work toward a Kew-style collection. Although orchids were just one of the many horticulture fields in which Pring worked at MBG, he was an orchid expert for more than 60 years and developed numerous outstanding hybrid orchids that are registered with the American Orchid Society.
Mr. Pring was the driving force in making the annual Orchid Show a success. He staged shows in New York City, Boston, and Washington, D.C., along with a number of other cities. These
exhibits were both educational and outright beautiful. In 1954 the First World Orchid Congress was held in St. Louis with Pring as Chairman of the event. Over the years, Pring accumulated many awards and compliments as Chairman of Installation.
Pring’s plant-collecting trips to Central and South America began in 1923. While on his first trip to Colombia, Pring established a tropical station on behalf of MBG in the Canal Zone. The station was used for research in orchids and annual plants. When Pring returned from one trip that lasted six months, he arrived home with more than 5,000 plants. Over the course of his career, the MBG’s orchid collection grew from the 300 plants when Pring arrived to over 50,000 plants with about 1200 varieties. The MBG orchid collection was second to none, including Kew Gardens.
A Life Rooted in St. Louis
In 1907, keeping a promise made to his parents, George Pring returned home for a visit 18 months after his arrival to St. Louis. On the boat trip to England, he met a young lady, Isabelle McAdie, who was traveling with her grandmother to visit an uncle. Over the next three years, the friendship turned to romance. The couple wed in New York and returned to St. Louis to raise four children. With influences of the family home on MBG property and their father’s passionate occupation, the three Pring boys became horticulturists and the Prings’ daughter married a botanist.
George Pring was not alone in his dedication to Missouri Botanical Garden. His wife, Belle, as she was most commonly known, helped establish the Garden’s auxiliary, which operated Tower Grove House, the home of MBG founder Henry Shaw. It was the Prings’ friendships, in fact, that led to the restoration of the building. Belle initiated the first volunteer program to staff the home for public tours, and she herself filled in many times for no-shows over the years to keep the project alive. Belle also served many garden clubs of the area in various posts, including President of the Better Gardens Club and the Margaret Krueger Conservation Club.
The Father of Annual Water Lilies
Although George Pring’s work with orchids and annual plant collection alone would immortalize him in MBG history, he is perhaps most recognized for his accomplishments with the annual water lilies. If you visit a public display of water lilies or open an aquatic plant catalog, you view his work. Pring introduced improved quality, improved forms, and even new colors of annual water lilies. For such a significant body of work, Pring is undisputed as “the father of annual water lilies.” Pring’s legacy began in 1912 when he decided to cross-pollinate some water lilies. Pring later explained two reasons for his changing field of interest from orchids to water lilies: “First, to grow lilies from seed to bloom takes only one year, but an orchid can take seven years. Hybrid lilies can thus be produced sooner. Second, there were few if any, horticulturists working with annual water lilies, providing a challenging field for experimentation.”
Pring was most intrigued with day-blooming annual water lilies. Blooming high above the water’s surface and their floating leaves for 4-6 successive days during the long summer hours, many of them bear a wonderful fragrance well worth an indulgent trip into the pond.
Pring set very high standards when introducing a new hybrid; many of his lilies are still considered to be the best. For example, out of nearly 250 pollinations that produced thousands of seedlings, just eight plants met Pring’s criteria and would be introduced. George Pring introduced only two night-blooming lilies. All of his other introductions are day-blooming lilies.
The first Gold Medal ever awarded by the National Association of Gardeners was given to Pring’s introduction of the Whitaker Strain of lilies in 1920. It was stated at the time of the award, “This has opened up a new era in water lily fame.” Pring’s continued work with water lilies forced MBG to build bigger display pools to better showcase his creations. Pring’s next breakthrough came, after careful breeding, with the introduction of the first white hybrid annual water lily. Exhibited for the first time at the National Flower Show in 1922, this lily was awarded a Silver Medal from the Society of American Florists. It is often speculated that this lily was one of Pring’s all-time favorites. He named it ‘Mrs. George H. Pring’ to honor his wife. Another Silver Medal was awarded to Pring the next year by the Society for ‘General Pershing,’ which is a large pink lily.
The Lost Yellow Lily
Pring’s accomplishments have assumed legendary proportions. One true tale begins with the St. Louis newspapers being called to announce that a twelve-year project to find the “lost yellow lily” of Africa was completed. The fabled yellow lily had been described but had not been seen for many years, rumored to be ‘lost’ to cultivation. Finally, a seed pod arrived in St. Louis via Pring’s research contacts in Africa. Pring examined the pod and its contents, only to be disappointed. “The seed pod was collected too early. These seeds are immature.” Stubbornly, Pring made an important decision. “We’re gonna take every one of these seeds out and soak them. There’s always a possibility that one might be fertile.”
Pring took the pod to Joe Cutak, his assistant, and the two men soaked every seed, totaling about 3,000. Within three weeks, Cutak reported, “I think there’s a little seedling coming through – the yellow water lily.” Pring later reported, “When the first (flower) bud appeared, he (Joe Cutak) and I couldn’t wait.” They opened the flower bud and were “highly delighted.” It was indeed “the lost yellow lily.” An unbelievable story, one seed out of about three thousand germinated… just one seed germinated. Pring not only proved its existence, but he would later produce some of his best lilies using “the lost yellow lily” as a parent.
The color yellow had not previously been seen in annual water lilies, making this a most notable discovery. Pring would go on to introduce several new hybrids in the yellow color range, the first
being ‘St. Louis,’ which was the only Pring lily ever granted a U.S. patent. The ‘St. Louis’ lily was also awarded the National Flower Show’s Medal in 1933. ‘Aviator Pring’ is a dark yellow lily named to honor Pring’s youngest son who was killed during a flight while he served in the military.
Besides his son and his wife, Pring also named a lily for his daughter. ‘Isabelle Pring’ is a wonderful white lily. ‘Joanne Pring’, a dark pink flower, is named for his first granddaughter. As
you visit displays of annual water lilies in the future, you will spot these names and many more. Pring often would name a lily after a family member or a person significant to his work. There are also lilies named for staff of Missouri Botanical Garden such as ‘Joe Cutak’ and ‘Director George T. Moore.’ In total, George Pring created or introduced about 40 annual water lilies over the course of 45 years. This feat is still unmatched. Pring’s breeding efforts are still studied by current hybridizers. To his credit, Pring kept detailed records and made his breeding public. When he introduced a new plant, he published the work in great detail in Missouri Botanical Gardens’ Bulletin. A large portion of these forty lilies have stood the test of time and are still considered the best.
Besides introducing the first white annual hybrid, ‘Mrs. George H. Pring’ and the first yellow annual hybrid, ‘St. Louis,’ Pring also introduced the first hybrids of pygmy forms for the home gardeners. And last, but not least, he introduced the first white form of the gigantean species from Australia calling it ‘Albert De Lestang.’ In referring to the Australian species lily, Pring once stated, “Nymphaea gigantea blue is the finest annual water lily of any in cultivation, including my own hybrids.”
A Legacy in Bloom
Toward the end of George Pring’s career, a newspaper article shared his “three loves.” The article told of Pring’s work with orchids, water lilies, and his lovely wife. It went on to say that these were the “three loves of George Pring.” Well, Mrs. Pring “did not like that very well” as she was listed third after the orchids and lilies. This remained quite the joke for years to come. Although these may have been Pring’s loves, it is not the complete picture.
Pring was the President or vice-president of a number of local plant societies. He was a popular lecturer, speaking on subjects from “Insect Pollination of Flowers” to “Plant Explorations in
Central and South America.” He became “the answer man,” responding to the numerous questions that came to MBG. Pring also hosted a radio program with this same concept, answering gardeners’ questions about their plants. George Pring wrote numerous articles for such publications as the Ladies Home Journal, Saturday Evening Post, and Life Magazine. He collaborated on several books, for example, Taylor’s Encyclopedia and Garden Pools, Water-lilies and Goldfish. One of his later accomplishments was his consultation in the design of the magnificent lily pools at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.
Missouri Botanical Garden was ever changed by George Pring’s decision to work in St. Louis rather than in Calcutta. Thank goodness we’ll never know what “young George would have accomplished in Calcutta.” Missouri Botanical Garden and the world now benefit from what Pring accomplished in St. Louis. After their deaths, Missouri Botanical Garden established the “Pring Memorial Garden” to honor Mr. And Mrs. George H. Pring. Located in the Japanese Garden, this special Memorial Garden is near where the couple lived. Also, “The Pring Water Lily Pool’ is dedicated to forever honor the man and his work, showcasing the beauty of only Pring’s annual water lilies therein. Two plaques near the memorial pool share his history with visitors.
George Pring made many decisions in his life that benefited many of us. He himself said, “If I had my life to do over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’d marry the same girl, no regrets at all.” We can only hope that we each can say the same of our life decisions.
This article was originally published in Pond & Garden magazine in 2001, when Chalily owner Joe Summers was serving as a Production Greenhouse Horticulturist at Missouri Botanical Garden, where aquatic plant production was among his responsibilities.
Dorothy Fahr aboard her tractor
