Hm, I wonder how they keep the Victoria amazonica alive at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew - in the UK! They are zone 8 at best. They must fish them out of their water garden in the winter and keep them in a greenhouse. A pretty messy laborious business, methinks.
Neil, do you know?
As for the gator, don't wait until he does get aggressive with you TK! Around here as it warms up in the spring the male gators go walkabout, and are pretty feisty!