goofing around in the lotus pond......

In water gardening there are many ways to do things...sometimes they work...sometimes they dont ..LOL

At the expense of showing all of you what a mess things are around here this time of year. I decided to share my Wednesday afternoon with you. It was a record 74 here yesterday so a good day to play in the water.

Last year... I "built" a lotus pond for my chawan basu. I had an old cement slab in place from a previous project but that wasnt a necessity. I stack cement block in a square pattern..no mortar just stacked. Then I mixed up soupy mortar mix and plastered the outside of the block to help hold them in place. A piece of epdm pond liner made the structure waterproof and my husband built me a wooden cap.

In this pond.(early last spring -2005)..I place my Chawan Basu in a rubber animal feed container ...I had started this tuber the spring before and it had not bloomed that first year (2004). For me the smaller lotus seem to be a little slower getting started. However, in the summer of 2005 it had bloomed VERY well in this lotus pond and pot.

Yesterday... I pulled up the potted lotus and wow " my cup runneth over"..

I had already planned to place my smaller lotus in those plastic tubs you can get a home depot for mixing mortar. so I prepared it by putting in a layer of regular garden/yard dirt mixed with just a bit of osmocote...and some "black cow" compost from lowes. I know some folks say dont use manure but this composted stuff works wonders for my lotus and lilies.

Next. I gently turned over the pot holding the lotus...notice how the tubers are on the bottom and the plant grows to the shape of the pot.

I've read that this is why you need a round pot or one with rounded corners.

I didnt not pull off any tubers or do anything to the root mass as I didnt want to divide this lotus this year.

I placed this root mass in my prepared tub of soil..with the tubers sitting on only about 1-2 inches of soil so they are still near the bottom. Then I filled in with some of the soil/cowpoo mixture around the remainin sides of the root mass.

I topped off with only a bit of pea gravel to try to hold in soil...I didnt want to add alot of weight.

This was then slowly lowered back into the lotus pond...along with 3 of the tiniest goldfish and a few tadpoles. when the water clears this will be a nice home for the lotus and I can leave it in there all winter as it is deep enough to not freeze here.

Charlotteda...
Fantastic!
Your lotuse pond looks very similar to my fish pond (mines bigger but built the same way)
I then built our decks all around it, so it's kind of sunken in.
I've just started getting the lotus tubers pulled together for this season as well. Please post more pics as you go along, get a few leaves, then the big ones, and blooms!
So many people have been asking about lotus (or in my case, water lilies) so blow by blow pics like yours are very informative!
Good Job!
:)
MerryMary

Pictures are worth a thousand words! Thank you for posting such clear photos and explaining your process! It helps enormously!

Nicely done Charlodetta! I too appreciate your information sharing. However, it has given me a raging case of zone envy. To repot here at this moment is to risk the loss of fingers to frostbite.

Charlotteda;
74o. sounds great. It was around 50o. here a couple days I was in and out a few times without my jacket as that temp kind of stirs the spring fever. Yes now I hav a slight fever , Not the same. But our pond was open could see the fish and such. nothing sprouting yet, I didn't expect any yet anyway. Just wanted to say great pictures, Now I realy have spring fever. We have a large pond; 15by20 and 12by15
both are about 3and 1/2ft deep I come up with mineral buckets for cattle feeding They are are 21" wide and 17" deep Got them just for the asking. great find.
Did you put any holes in the tubs you used? It didn't look like it.
If it is not necessary I don't think I will either.
We are planing on visiting our sister in law in Sanford NC. some time in May. We are thinking of picking up our lotus tugers while down there. Do you know of a good place to pick them up in that area??
Barb & Russ

No holes are not necessary as the whole "pot" is sitting in the pond..having this new tub down in a small pondlet....keeps me from having to watch it so carefully during the summer..

If you have a larger lotus in a tub with only a few inches of water over the top..you can have your lotus dry up quickly if you dont keep an eye on it during summer.

No sorry...I purchased my lotus tubers from Bonnie Hale at Bonniesplants.com. I know she usually sells out of lotus by sometime in March.

I noticed this post the other day. I had grown lotus from seed and lost my lotus the first winter. So I started more of them. After reading this post I started thinking about my new lotus's from last year. So the hubby went out and pulled the lotus planters up from the pond and brought them in. I went through them. They look very healthy this year. I think I will get a bloom this growing season. I do not think this year will be a lotus failure. Thanks to the people who tried to help me through my errors in growing them from seed. :)