Growing Lotus

I don't know what type of lotus it was Freddie.

A friend on Koiphen sent several of us 4 different types of seeds. They had a strip of paint on them to tell which seed was which, (some one sent her some, and she got some from ebay, but she didn't know which seed was which lotus.

One of them bloomed in large white with a little pink flowers. The one pictured was large dark pink. And one was a smaller lotus and bloomed with a white flower. The 4th one didn't bloom and didn't get as tall as the other large ones, but wasn't as short as the small one but I think it was more a problem with that one being in the shade too much of the day from a large pine tree we used to have in our back yard at the time too.

JW, my understanding of lotus is that it would probably come back even in our climate, which is colder than yours as long as the tubers are planted deep enough in the ground. But when I had it I only had them in large tubs. I didn't even try to save them. I really don't have a place that I want to dig deep enough and turn into a boggy area here. We have a fairly average city lot. 40' X 120'

This afternoon I just happened to walk past the half barrels and noticed one lotus leaf breaking the surface of the water. I put some of JW's duck weed in all of the half barrels to minumize some of the algae bloom, and can't see threw the duck to see the bottom. I also have two to three mosquito fish in each half barrel. Now I need to go out and push back the duck weed to get a better look at the lotus tubers.

Happy ponding,

Starting to see a little more growth in my eight lotus barrels. We need some more warm weather.

Happy ponding,

Hi JW,

No sun here yet, supposed to have chances of rain later. I miss summer, I miss summer, I miss summer...............................

Happy ponding,

This cooler weather has really slowed everything down except my darned grass.

Happy ponding,

FINALLY! I'm actually seeing signs of growth in my lotus barrels.

Happy ponding,

I thought I was goofy. I have been talking to my plants, especially the lotus, and they are not listening to me. The other day I even had to bail out half of the water in their containers, because I thought maybe they were drowning. Not so, they're just treading water waiting for the weather to change.

Happy ponding,

Our weather has been tropical lately! Hot, with afternoon thundershowers. Every day! If it is this hot already, we are going to have a doozie of a summer! But, I'd rather have this than the cold!

very warm here too,
One of our lotus has really started to "take off".....there are about 8 leaves with three of them rising above the water

I think I saw some late yesterday. Still have stunted lotus. I sure hope it doesn't give up and die on me.

I was really hoping to have some success growing lotus this year. And my neighbors keep leaning over the fence and asking "what's in those tubs of dirty water again?"

Happy ponding,

Good news and bad news:

Good News is the first flower bud is showing on one of our lotus!!!

Bad News is the heron has finally found our pond, Mrs. Peepers came home last night and came around the corner of the house into the back yard and startled the heron as he was standing next to the pond


all fish were accounted for

keeping a close watch these days

Yeah all of my first little lotus leaves have done the same thing. Turned brown, shriveled up, and roted off the end.

Happy ponding?

Starting to see some action in three of my eight tubs. I sure hope the cool spell we had here hasn't killed of the lotus tubers.

Happy ponding,

I think you're right about the weather where you are in Arlington, WA. I even considered dragging my eight lotus tubs into the garage hand heating the room with UV lamps, just to kick start them, but I think that is too late.

I have a 10' X 10' room in the back of garage that was a tropical fish room that fully insulated. My raised tropical fish in there when I was a little kid. I did the same thing about twenty years ago. I'm thinking about wintering over some plants in there this coming winter. I may have to do the same this coming winter with the lotus. All eight tubs should fit down two walls of the room.

Happy ponding,

Thanks. I'm still having problems trying to post pictures on any of the forums. Thank you for the instructions, but I still can't seem to get it to work. Otherwise I would be posting pictures quite often.

Happy ponding,

In 'my pictures file' and at 'my documents'.

The lotus in one of our barrels has 4 flower buds on it. 2 are pretty big and getting ready to open while the other 2 are tiny. I need to get some pictures when they open.
The lotus plants in the pond have been attacked by caterpillars and all the leaves are now skeletons. I knocked the little buggers off and into the waiting mouths of the always hungry koi. Hopefully the plants can rebound and still bloom. I want to grow them in the pond so I don't have to worry about over-wintering them cause the pots all freeze solid and the pond does not.

Lots of leaves but no buds poking up their heads yet....

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here are some pictures of our lotus tub

actually not much fragrance yet, it kinda reminds me of minty bubblegum

Wow freddie those look awesome..

came home early enough to get a picture of the lotus bloom, and all the petals have already fallen off the the flower

I'm not sure how long the flowers last, I thought at least 3 days.
We have been getting some awful storms here lately with high winds too.
I think the wind tore that one apart.
This morning the second one was in full bloom so we got a couple quick pics.
Then I heard the thunder and saw lightning, ran into the house just before a total downpour
so I bet the second lotus bloom is now toast
Good news is there are at least 3 more buds on the plant

jw....This lotus is called "Pretty Princess Peyton"
I got it from Texas Waterlilies as part of a group buy on the Koiphen forum
Honestly I'm not all that impressed by the bloom, in fact the name sounds "prettier" than
the actual flower.
My "Russian Red" is a little behind and only has a few leaves, no flower buds yet
Same for "Mrs Perry Slocum"

Yes I am planning to be diligent in my fall pond maintenance this year. Although the cost of the tubers wasn't really much at all,
I'd like to be able to offer tubers in the spring for anyone that wants to try them.

NEWS FLASH....... another batch of storms ripped through our area this morning
and ruined the second bloom on the princess. At least we got a couple pictures
of the flower before the wind blew it away

If it's not the weather, now I have racoon's that are getting a kick out of up rooting the lotus tubers that are having a hard time getting started. Of course the tubs for my lotus are out next to the drive way outside the six foot fence. I believe it will be a miricle if the lotus do anything at all.

Happy ponding?