William Tricker, Inc. is America’s Oldest Water Garden Store and was established in 1892 by William Tricker, a famous water gardener dedicated to all life forms relating to water gardening. The water garden nursery is a National Historic District listed in the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.
William Tricker, Inc.® is a leading grower of aquatic plants and supplier of water garden products, aquarium supplies, and outdoor decor. With over a century of outstanding experience, we have propagated superior water lilies, lotuses and other aquatic plants in our historic greenhouses. Our customers have been receiving quality guarantees that make water gardening a pleasurable experience for them.
Many of Tricker’s family members helped to manage the William Tricker company. They brought the company to become world-renowned based in the U.S.A. William Tricker, Inc. survived two World Wars, two pandemics, the Great Depression, and the Great Recession.
William Tricker, nee Charles William Brett Tricker in the upper left of the photo, was born in 1853 in England to Charles Tricker, a gardener. He trained at the well-known Kew Gardens in the United Kingdom before immigrating to the U.S. with his wife in 1885. He received his U.S. citizenship in 1900. His nursery on Staten Island was developed, then he moved the nursery to Clifton, N.J. He was a founder of the popular Commercial Water Lily Culture in the U.S.
After Mr. Tricker died in 1916, his son, Charles Tricker, continued the business at Saddle River, N.J. which is now the home of the upscale Waterford Gardens. At that time, Charles merged the company with the Independence Nursery.
When Charles Tricker passed away in 1961, Schmidlin became the sole owner of both the Saddle River and Independence facilities. In 1986 Schmidlin sold the business name and Independence grounds with the greenhouses to Richard Lee who passed away in 2022. Richard’s widow, Cindy Lee, now owns and runs the company. She originally worked at Tricker’s under Schmidlin’s management.
William Tricker started hybridizing water lilies in the 1800s. He introduced different shapes and colors and enhanced the hardiness by cross-breeding them. In the early 1890s, he earned a reputation as a lead grower of aquatic plants through hybridizing water lilies.
In 1892 the first William Tricker Company catalog was introduced. Its tradition is carried on today to send colorful catalogs to our water gardeners as well as the USFS, contractors who are restoring wetlands, and botanical gardens. We still have an original copy of the rare 1892 William Tricker Catalog as well as other historic water garden relics.
After going through a few companies during the “Great Depression” and “Panic of 1893”, the business prospered over the years and was incorporated as William Tricker, Inc. in 1927 for the Independence, Ohio store and greenhouses.
Today this century old historic location has spring water that supplies the greenhouses, outdoor ponds, and fish nurseries. It has served the water lily culture since 1899.
Many of the water lilies were hybridized and named by these noted individuals and are still available today. Some are unique and “first of a kind” in their respective classes and can be purchased from William Tricker, Inc. You can still enjoy these spectacular water lily hybrids and witness the beauty.
Not only did Tricker’s introduce many new water lily hybrids but over the long history also developed fancy and ornamental fish propagation, fish remedies, pH testing, aquatic fertilizers, fish food formulations, and the manufacture of aquariums and accessories to name a few contributions. We still manufacture and sell the fish food and remedies under the Innurco brand, meaning “Independence Nursery Company”. As William Tricker Inc. moves forward into its next century, its enduring legacy as America's oldest water garden specialist continues to inspire water gardening enthusiasts around the world.
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