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Florida, USA |
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As a child, I spent many summers wading in ponds, catching
tadpoles and turtles. My hometown in Southeast Kansas is surrounded
by farm ponds filled with native Nelumbo lutea, as well
as several wild 
varieties
of waterlilies. Our family was always active outdoors and kept
many turtles and fish. For many years we rescued box turtles
off of the highways and kept them in our greenhouse.
After graduating high school, I enrolled at the local state
university and majored in Physics. My husband (we both grew up
in the same neighborhood, and have known each other since pre-school)
and I were married during our first year of college. Once ponding
caught on (even in the Midwest), my husband and I were able to
obtain supplies to build a small above ground "box"
pond in the same greenhouse I kept turtles in as a child. We
soon had too many plants for such a small space and built a large
in-ground pond in the yard, and it was home to several koi and
common hardy waterlilies.
Just two years after building our "big" pond, I
finished my bachelors degree in Physics, and moved on to graduate
school. There are only about nine graduate degree programs in
medical physics in the United States, so I picked the one in
Florida! For the first year in Gainesville, we are residing in
an apartment; however, we have not let that stop our ponding
hobby. We received permission to build a pond behind our apartment,
and are slowly transforming the place and 
building
up a new stock of waterlilies appropriate for the new climate.
In addition to water gardening, my husband and I are kept quite busy with our sons, Dylan and Evan. We also enjoy gourmet cooking, movies, and computers. I periodically decorate wedding cakes, and have also worked as a florist and caterer. We expect to be in Florida for the next four years while I complete a master's and doctoral degree.
Jessica is also a talented photographer and we are pleased to include her images in the cultivar galleries as well as in this personal gallery --