The photo below shows some lotus tubers I removed from a pot. On the left side of the photo you can see little growing tips coming out from the tubers. On the right of the top tuber you can see a skinny looking runner coming off.
The variety I harvested in this picture is Strawberry Blonde. These tubers plus more all came from the same pot. This photo allows you to see the variation in tuber size within the same plant.
deb,,,,Please offer me any guidance you have about growing lotus. Where can you get them? I have found NO one here in Orlando that carries it. The (what I thought were) tubers I ordered off Ebay were maybe 1 inch long, and the thickness of a wooden match. Yours in the pic above, don't even resemble the same beast I recieved. Sigh....Do you have a company you get yours from. I really want lotus in my fish pond. Full sun or part sun? Any advice?
~MerryMary
Sure, MerryMary.
I hope you planted the ones you got off e-bay. There are some bowl lotus that would have smaller tubers, but I don't know how small.
You might look in the yellow pages under ponds or pond building some of the folks there might have potted growing lotus you can buy or they might know a little mom & pop nursery that has them.
You might trying calling some regular nurseries and see if they know anyone. I don't know if any lotus are banned in Florida or not. I know there was talk around here of wanting to ban the 'Scared' lotus.
There are lots of places you can purchase lotus through the mail.
I think they are running around $35 to $50 a tuber depending on
variety. I'll try and put a list together of the folks I know and post it later. There is also a great site for showing varieties of lotus and waterlilies that I'll post with it. There are also different methods of planting lotus. I've done the big pot and the 2 inches of dirt method and they both have worked for me.
You also need to consider the scale of your fish pond. If you have a big pond, a giant five foot plant wont look out of place. If you have a tiny preformed pond that is 18 inches deep and six feet long, maybe one of the smaller bowl lotus would work. Of course, considerations have to be made if you live where it freezes.
Things you need to consider first. Do you have koi or goldfish?
Some folks koi root around in pots; then I know others that have koi that aren't interested in their pots.
Lotus, which are in pots perform better when they get regular feedings of fertilizer tabs. Most folks I've talked to who grow them in pots divide them every 3 to five years.
I've grown mine in full sun. I have a friend who grows hers in some spot that gets some shade during the day. I have also grown them in big containers at work. You have to keep them watered. In this zone they start to look ratty towards the end of the summer and early fall. Also, I've had some years when they really multiply and others when they don't seem to do as well.
You can also grow them from seed, but that takes usually about 2 years on average from seed to bloom.
They are a beautiful plant. The flowers usually last only 3 days.
The image below shows a pot of lotus that's probably about 5 years old.
Wow, thank you for all of the info Deb....I'm in Central Florida, so I know we have the correct weather to grow them, I'm just not having much luck. Unfortunately, there aren't really any nursuries around here that carry such things. I've gone to the more "exotic" ones, where I get some of my better and larger tropicals, one of them has one for display, and that's it....blah.
I do have fish in my above ground pond, but also have water bowl gardens around the decks. I was hoping to get one growing in a water bowl garden along side my pond, but not in it. So I would need to find the smaller varieties. In the pic above, are each one of the root tubers showing, available for planting, or is it a just a root mass? I've started a few from seed, but after putting them in my water gardens, they seem to fade out and die before they really get going, but I know the water is ok, because I have other water tropicals in there...
I'm NOT giving up on this one! Lol, at this point I just feel like I can't surrender.
Thanks again for all of your ideas and suggestions!
:)
MerryMary
MerryMary here is the website with some info on lotus. You'll notice on their site they grew a blooming lotus from seed in 5 months.
I think they grew it in Florida.
When I grew mine in Oklahoma it took 2 years. Variety may also be a factor.
www.victoria-adventure.org
We have horrible grass fires going all around Oklahoma right now.
I live in the country. No fires here yet, but I might have to make a run for it. I'll try to post some other sources that mail lotus tomorrow.
I know other people at dave's have gotten some from www.bonniesplants.com; however, I've never purchased any from her. Did you do a plant search on lotus here at Dave's? Usually when I do a search for a plant it will pop up with a thing at the top saying how many vendors have this plant for sale.
In answer to your other question, in the picture above are lots of tubers. You divide them up and start new plants.
Gotta dash,
Deb
Run! Ok, "walk" in a calm fashion, like your teacher taught you, but do it anyway! (or at least be very careful)
Going through last years hurricanes, I don't need to "tough it out" anymore, I leave when they tell me to leave....natural disasters are no fun.
Best thoughts go out to you and your home!
MerryMary
This message was edited Nov 28, 2005 8:35 AM
I purchased 2 lotus from Bonnies and they were fine. I dont know if she is the best source for lotus but mine were good quality.
Thanks Charlotteda....That's what I needed to know, reliable proven vendors...some of them can get pricey, so would rather know ahead of time if they sell quality goods.
MerryMary
Yeah! No fire here. I'm with you Merrymary when they say go. GO!
My other DGer friend is safe; however, some fires are still smoldering in woods near her.
You can try these sites. Again, I haven't purchased from either of these, but they have been around a long time.
www.lilypons.com (That is not a misspelling there is no d)
www.slocumwatergardens.com
Merrymary if you find a lotus you want and it's not available through them send me a D-mail I have friend who grows them commercially here in Oklahoma. Also, I purchase some from a place in Rogers, AR and they have 24 named varieties of lotus.
The picture is of an lotus leaf starting to come out.
Deb, thanks so much, and tell your friend I have NO trouble ordering from him/her....if they can ship them, I can easily pay for them!
:)
MerryMary
MerryMary you might want to start another thread to see which lotus have grown in pots outside a pond and performed well for others on DG.
If you have your pot that you want to use, be sure to let who you are buying from know the dimensions of the pots.
Hope you have a wonderful time looking for lotus and picking out the ones you want to try. If you have a hard time locating one send me a D-mail.
The photo shows the section from tuber on the left to runner on the right.
Have fun,
Deb
Deb,
The tuber your showing in the pic would allow a full size blooming plant? Is that the size I should be looking for or is that one you split off of an already established plant?
Mary (and thank you for all of this discussion, I find lotuses fascinating, and hope to get them going in my water gardens.)
Hmmm? Okay, if you go back to the start of this thread and you enlarge the very first picture. You will see three different tubers.
You'll see a yardstick and quarter in the photo also to give you some idea of scale for this variety of lotus 'Strawberry Blonde'. All the tubers in that picture came out of the same pot. You should be able to get a plant from all three pieces pictured. Actually, I could probably divide the one in the center into more divisions since there are more growing tips showing.
This lotus gets big given enough room and food. I've had leaves over five feet tall.
In the above picture with my hand, the left section (which is fatter) is the tuber. You can't see the tuber completely, but yes you should be able to get a plant from that.
I have one bowl lotus; however, I haven't divided it yet so I don't know what those tubers look like. It's in a bowl about the size of a salad bowl.
I have looked on the internet for some good photos of lotus tubers and Bonnie's was the closest I found. That was one reason why I thought I would go a head and divide this pot this fall and take some photos.
When you divide lotus often the soil seems like clay even if you started out with regular top soil. There is often this odor. It's very distinct. Primordial is the only word I can think of to describe the smell. You'll probably find some dead tubers too. Someone told me the older "mother" tubers just die off. Below is a cross section of a dead tuber.
I
Wow, a salad bowl? And here I was worried if my pond would be big enough or not. I'm very excited to get this project going!
Mary
There are lots of water garden plants that come in miniature form.
The other thing I've noticed about water garden plants is that sometimes if they are in a smaller container the actual plant will be smaller. I had a small pot of 'Arrowhead' someone admired and I gave her a start. She had put hers in a larger pot and she brought some to a plant exchange the next year and her's were huge.
Ideas change with time. And, sometimes there is more than one way to do something. I've grown some lotus in those large low round pots you can get in the water garden section at Loew's with maybe two or three inches of soil in the bottom. The idea being you can actually scoot the fertilizer tabs under the plant. This method also makes them lighter and easier to move. I've grown them in 3 foot patio ponds. I've grown them in several different kinds of pots. I've cut up old pond liner and put that in nursery pots to cover the hole in the bottom and grown water garden plants in those.
Below is a picture of a small lotus leaf as it looks before it starts to unfurl.
