My Mrs. Perry D. Slocum lotus is blooming the bud was huge...hubby said it looked like a big goose egg.
Lotus blooming today..
your Mrs .Perry Slocum is lovely .I have Nucifera Speciosum in bloom today
OH..that is cool !
Oh, how beautiful!!! I cant wait until mine opens.
The magic is that the blooms are so huge.. they look unreal..
Oh My Goodness. That Is absolutely drop dead gorgeous. My Mrs.P.D. Slocum only has four coin leaves up. No sign of any leaves sticking up above water yet let alone a bloom. What a difference two zones, and of course your excellent water gardening abilities, makes.
I have had this one for years in an earthen pond..anyone know the name?
I sure wish I was a good lotus ID person...its seems hard to get the folks in the know to talk about them...dont know why...maybe lotus culture is a secret.. :)
Beautiful flower. Now I want to add a lotus to the pond.
Its lovely . it looks like Nucifera Rosea Plena to me. What do you think ? here is a terrific site with images and pics perhaps you can identify it
http://www.victoria-adventure.org/lotus/galleries_main.html
Fellow lotus lovers I have an Idea ... would any of you be interested in swapping lotus runners and or fresh seed .
I have loads of Nucifera Speciosa runners to share here is a pic :)
I've been taught that you can only ship lotus when they are dormant.....not saying that is the definitive word but that is what I have been told.
you can only shp tubers untill about mid april beginning of May depending on where in the country the tuber is :) .Ive grown from runners successfully late in the season. A runner will not bloom this season but will grow and get big enough to bloom. Ive grown 2 lotus sent to me as runners . The speciosa that I sent pics of which is huge .It bloomed the year after I got it as did my bowl lotus that came to me as a runner . you have to be sure that the runner has a few growing tips or it will not survive .
So your experience is that the runners may be more pliable and less likely to have broken growing tips than the fatter tubers.. makes sense..
yes BUT they wont bloom this season and for some people with really short growing seasons it may take 2 years to bloom from a runner which is one reason tubers are the way to go if you are dishing out the dollars ! but if we spent 5$ to swap runners of different cultivars its a lot more economical and I for one dont mind the wait but I do have a long growing season .
Yes... I totally understand the difference between runners and tubers and the fact that it takes runners longer to flower...for some folks up north I wouldnt be surprised if they have to wait 3 years to bloom from a runner..but as you say...its much cheaper..
Oh , Im sorry ! I hope I didnt sound like I was talking down at you -that was not my intent at all ; its just that we have members of all levels of exp here at Daves and I wanted to be sure everyone reading the thread understood the potential drawbacks of trading runners so if anyone was still interested everyone would be pleased and not disappointed if their runner did not bloom next season :)
Would you be interested in swapping runners ?
I lost several of mine in the hurricanes here 2 years ago .Salt water intrusion killed them :(
Oh no Teresa... I didnt think that at all...another one of those cyber relationship things where we read the words but cant see the smile on the face of the "typer" .. LOL
I have seen alot of runners... that folks have purchased on ebay as "tubers"...LOL
I would love to trade with you sometime ..I dont want to cut on anything right now.. This is only my third year with lotus and I am afraid of messing up :)
I have read and been told that you should not cut off any leaves on your lotus below water level as water will then enter through the hollow stem and possibly infect the tuber with bacteria... if you cut runners during the growing season would you not have the same possibility... ?
oh Good :)
yes its true , a lotus can drown if the pads are cut and water gets in the stem but a runner is not a stem I lift the runner above the water line and make sure the cut of the runner with one or 2 leaves intact . Does this make sense ?
I havent had a problem with any infection using that method and I have to cut lotus allot . Ive got a lotus that got loose in my courtyard pond .
YIKES ! So Im cutting daily . It stinks because I cant pull the whole thing out or risk having no blooms this year so I have to wait untill it goes dormant to get it out and then be vigilant in the spring looking for sprouts ..... the cutting back so often means im loosing some blooms as well but if I dont it will take over my entire pond !
Since I have to cut it back anyway to keep it from devouring my pond this season Id rather share the runners than compost them , ya know ?
I've been adding them as extras to all of my water garden trades LOL .
I totally understand about not wanting to cut back now :)
LOL, I bought "tubers' on ebay that were nothing but runners this spring .
Teresa
Today she is yellow :)
OK.......whatever kind mine is...I can't get at to dig tubers or runners....snakes and alligator snapping turtles being a big problem in my earthen ponds...but I can get at the seed pods in the fall and would love to trade for other colors......I thought it was a Slocum.Is there a George Slocum...bought the darn thing over 20 years ago and it was $35 for the plant then.
Someday I'm going to build a bigger pond so I can have one too.
Nice picture.
Now Jackie...you know you could get out there with a stick and thrash around and chase off those mean turtles :)
Seriously...most lotus seed do not produce true as most of the plants are hybrids...
You dont have to have a pond for a lotus...matter of fact - mine in the photo is NOT in the pond - its in the bottom half of a big plastic barrel..some folks grow them in those big plastic tubs you can get at walmart !
As I sit here looking at the photos of lotus Y-all have already, I'm having a case of zone envy. I have leaves.
I'm begining to wonder if the season will be long enough.
Russ
Whoops pic didn't get in there try again
Charlotte come on over and help me thrash around with a stick and we"ll get us some lotus tubers.......;>)
you put your lotus in a half barrel filled with water or soil or both? would be so much easier for me to do........
I planted my large ones in the bottom half of a 55 gal plastic barrel placed right beside "but not in" the pond." Some folks bury them and leave about 2 or 3 inches of the rim exposed... that was my original plan but everytime I think about digging the hole I find something else to do :)
I put about 6 inches of soil in the bottom of the barrel and then once the tuber is planted that leaves about 12 inches of water on top. The only disadvantage of this method is that I have to put more water in the pot during the hottest part of summer about every 3 or 4 days due to evaporation and use by the lotus. Also I have to use mosquito dunks... could use fish but I'm afraid I will forget to water !
I use the same method . I have potted lotus in containers on the courtyard and also on the back decks . My only problem with this method is my dog who has developed a fondness for lotus tubers -YUM YUM !!!! he has eaten 3 momo botan tubers to date !
he eats the katie ruellia blossoms greedily too ....that I dont mind, but his lotus appetite is getting really costly :(
I like the new bowl cultivars .they can grow in small planters .I have a few but no pics . I'll add some later .
Teresa
Oh lord... if my husband's big dog ate my lotus...that would be a problem :)