Canna Lily 'Red King Humbert' (Canna x generalis)

Canna Lily 'Red King Humbert'
Canna x generalis

Canna Red King Humbert in pond setting. The leaves always put on this wonderful display!

What a wonderful water garden. I love that lotus and black colocasia, too.

Thanks! I still put the Imperial Taro out every year but a number of things have changed over the years. I accidently killed my lotus trying to divide it, and of course the Canna is gone. The picture reminds me how pretty it was!

Yes, many times I have looked at pictures of previous garden successes and marveled at the beauty that was captured momentarily.
Too bad about your lotus. I have always wanted a big pink one, but I don't want to have to dig a 4 foot deep pond!
I saw a movie once where a lotus was growing in a large decorative bowl. It was very dramatic.

They have different sized lotus. For example, momo boton is very small (for smaller ponds) and you could probably grow it in a "tub" garden, bring it in and let it overwinter inside.

I have a spring fed pond that's only 2' deep. Because it's spring fed, only the surface freezes down about 2-3", the rest of the water stays above freezing because the water constantly flowing in is at about 55 degrees! I do miss my lotus. I don't have any problem dividing the lilies, but if I get another one I'll let the experts divide it!

Thanks for the info about the dwarf lotus. I will look into that.
Your spring fed pond sounds great.
My "frogpond" has been know to freeze solid, although the past winters have been milder.

I think the most we've ever had freeze is about the top 3". I try to keep a pond warmer out there for air exchange, but last year it died early in the winter. Even with the pond completely frozen over all the fish (not that many and smaller) lived over. Of course the frogs go hide in the rocks underground. I did have one frog who tried to overwinter in a tub garden one year. Poor little guy - I found him in the spring. Now I take a fish net and make sure their out of there before things freeze!

Tox, BTW - your pond is really pretty. Wish I could see all the way down into mine. The problem with a spring fed pond is that silt washes in and that makes algae grow. This year it's been a real pain!

Mine is right outside the dining room window. Makes for great viewing, but it is in deep shade from a massive oak tree and the 2 story house, so I can't really grow flowers in it. The little yellow-blooming plant in the picture died off already. During the fall, it fills up with oak leaves, and then it smells like a sewer in the spring when I drain it and clean it! I keep a large goldfish and a pleicostomus in there during the summer and they keep the mosquito larvae and some of the algae at bay. We often have a dozen frogs or more sitting around it. Here is someone else who likes to hang out there:

Snowball!!! (My sister-in-law has a cat that looked just like yours!). Bet the frogs like her (or him) :o)

I call him Sugarboy, which people always convert into Sugarbaby for some reason. He has been caught with more than one frog for sure! We also have a creek where he hangs out and stalks them. Naughty boy!! We almost lost him to encephalitis this summer, and babied him so much to get him through it, I am really attached to him now. He is the youngest of our 5 cats (3 live in the house, 2 outside with their own shed for nighttime). But cats are actually my DH's weakness, and mine is plants. Sometimes they don't mix very well.

We have 3 as well as our golden retriever (I also volunteer for Rescue). We used to have a part Maine Coon named Bella who loved our pond. I tried to keep her in but she'd been an outdoor cat in her prior life and wouldn't be stopped! But the funniest pond jumper was our first foster dog, Dudley who just would NOT stay out of the pond. My poor waterlilies were just getting started back then!

So that's what happened to your Momo Botan lotus!
Just kidding, ha.

LOL!!! Poor Dudley was really a piece of work! Actually, we fostered him before we got the lotus'. I was just starting with a few waterlilies and water hyacynth back then (see the date - '98). My pond is now covered with lily pads in summer (12+ lilies). I try to keep the dogs out, but every once in a while I get one who comes into the backyard for the first time - see's water -- and suddenly I hear, "eek, eek, eeeeeeek, EEEEEEKKKKK!!!! as the frogs all jump out of the way. The frogs and fish have learned to adapt, but don't appreciate the intrusion!

Wish I could put it on old Dud, but No, sad to say my poor lotus' died because of my inexperienced dividing!!!

It is wonderful that you help out with your local animal shelter as a foster family. We get a lot of dumped kittens and puppies here and try to get their shots, spay/neuter, worming, etc done and then give them to a good home. I think there have been about 21, cats and dogs both, that we have either kept or placed. Out of those, only 2 were not strays that someone dropped off. (We rescued those 2 from other places). It is sad that folks let their animals multiply like that, but I know a lot of them cannot afford the vet bills either. Thankfully we don't see children dumped off on every street corner!!

Actually I volunteer for a Golden Retriever "breed" rescue http://www.grrcny.org. I foster, am secretary, volunteer coordinator, do their website and newsletter, and (in my spare time) do illustrations that we use on T-shirts for fundraising!

Yes, the fight to shut down backyard breeders and puppy mills is an ever-ongoing fight. Both of my Goldens have come from backyard breeders - breeding stock that was "discarded." Only my present Golden ended up first in the hands of a "collector" before she came to rescue. She'd never known what it was like to be a Golden. She does now!

Bless you. It is so good to find people who care about making the world a better place.

Bless you too! I don't know how people can be so cruel as to just dump a pet. Our black cat, Mo came from that situation - we enticed him and his sisters inside at about 5 weeks old - the mother dumped when pregnant. Never found her or the other two kittens.

There are winter hardy lotuses. Some are yellow, the ones native to the northern US. They grow wild in Lake St Clair between Ontario and Michigan, and in SE Massachusetts. The flowers are large. We had them also in the ground, well, in a pond, in Rhode Island, where there is real winter, and never brought them in. Those were the classical Asian kind: white with pink stripes, huge flowers, ever more huge leaves. They also grow wild in Kashmir, which certainly has wintery winters, and those aren't brought in to anywhere either. So you might just try leaving them in a pond, if they are happy there.

I grew one once from lotus root that I bought in an Asian grocery store! It turned out to be the white and pink kind. That was in San Diego.