Hi,
I have my lotus in a pot on my deck (pond too small to sink it.) Do you think it would survive the winter in a detached unheated gargage, or do I really need to attempt to dig it up? I am in zone 8b or possibly 8a. I have looked this up but the info I find is confusing. It seems that as long as it is below the frozen water surface, all is well. I don't recall getting a lot of thick ice here in the Pacific northwest. I am afraid I will kill it if I try to dig up and store the tuber and I'm trying to figure out where the best odds are. Any advice/expertise would be greatly appreciated. It was grown from seed and I'd hate for it to die before I ever get a chance to see it bloom!
Lori
Lotus in the garage?
Lori is your lotus in the pond now or in a bog garden?
This is only my second year with lotus. but I got my tubers before I could plant them. so I just hung them down in my pond. I checked with several people and they were sure that as long as the tuber don't freeze you are ok. I know of one person zone 5 , his ponds are not very deep. 2&1/2-3' is all. He just leaves them be. They are in the water all winter So unlees they are a tropical. they should be ok. We have a lake up here close by that has lotus in it, and they get no care at all. They come back every year. I do know that they don't like their roots messed with.
Don't know if this is any help or not, will check some other sites as I realy plan to leave mine in the pond. I'll get ice 3-4" thick
but I keep a hole open with a small pump as I have quite a few large Koi and it is a necessity for the "gases" to escape.
thanks. Mine is actually in a pot on the deck. It isn't sunk into the pond (VERY small pond and I don't want it mucky) and it isn't sunk into the ground. That said, I can't see it freezing through. I'm watching the temp and if I see it start getting too cold I'll probably just wrap it in an old blanket in the garage or something. The seed came from a craft store floral department, so I have no idea what variety it is. It will be interesting to find out what it is if it makes it through.
Lori
I hope mine turns out as nice as yours!
I think that if you put it in the garage it should be warm enough. Usually a unheated building is somewhere around 20 degrees warmer than the outside winter weather.
I'm not saying this as a definate though. as wind can make a big difference.
I have sunk all mine now. It is supposed to get down to 20 tonight and the wind is blowing. I was trying to clean out the falls filter this afternoon , my fingers were really feeling the cold. I just had to give up.
I'm always experimenting. I tried storing some of the first tubers I got in the garage with no water covering them and they rotted. I have successfully stored tubers in damp (not wet) peat moss after dusting them with a fungicide. I put them in big trash bags and the bags in coolers in the garage. I waited till after our first frost date to float them in water. If it was going to be cold, I pulled them back in the garage. The first time I tried that I didn't lose any tubers. The second time some rotted.
I have some that are in a very shallow school pond maybe 20 inches. Those come back every year. They are planted in shallow wide pots.
I have one friend who grows them commercially and she has stored her's in water. I'm not sure what she treats the water with. Another person I know told me he puts hay on top and maybe around his that are above ground and then covers them with plastic; however, I haven't tried that yet.
My experiment for this winter is I have a small tuber in one of those plastic patio ponds that you can get at Lowes. It is above ground and the tuber is in the center of the patio pond with about ten inches of water covering it. I just hope the dogs and the deer don't lower my water level LOL. I don't know if any of Perry Slocum's books talk about that or not. Maybe you could try calling one of the water garden nursery places.
Let me know how yours turn out. Send photos.
If I had more I might experiment some too. This was my first time with lotus. A friend in Ohio zone 5 leaves his be. they come back. I'm not sure if I will be safe or not but I just sunk all the pots under 2&1/2' in the pond. I will find out in the spring. I took one seed and put in the aquarium with some of the baby koi and some tadpols. I noticed a sprout starting to form. Only I've tried this before and got one or two leaves, only to have them die. I'm sure the Mrs Perry D Slokum is a very tough lotus. but they don't like to be messed with much.
I have been wanting a green house for a few years now, I think if I did I would try to over winter some in there in a small preformed. I will be trying to get one constructed soon. as I have more to try save than just one or two plants. I thought about turning one room, upstairs into a mini G/H. but It sounds like We may be having guests for the winter so I no longer have that option. I guess its back to building one. Oh well. R
I have worked with Lotus plants grown commercially. As long as the tuber is below the freezing zone they will survive. They will stay dormant until the water warms up .Different varieties come out of this at different times.The plant will develope growing tips during the dormant stage but the tips will not start to grow more until the temperture warms enough.During the dormant stage is when you pick your tubers and divide them to start more plants.I would right after your last frost date. This will insure you have the growing tips .We used a water hose or a water pump to blow the mud away with little or no disturbance of the growing tips.You should have 2 sections or segments with growing tips when you divide them. We just cut them this way because some of the runners were 10 feet long or so. There are several different theories going around about planting them but we always made a trench in the soil and placed the tuber in that and covered it with dirt except the facing upward tips. You can anchor the tuber down but we never had to because we never had much movement in our growing ponds.
