I just took out and composted a 24" Lotus tub with a honking huge gorgeous "Mrs. Perry D. Slocum". I did try to freecycle it but had no takers. It grew way beyond my expectations. The problem was that if a stiff wind caught it the tub was not heavy enough to keep it upright. It blew over on its side at least once a week. That meant climbing into the pond and setting it upright. That got real old real quick. Next year I might just bury a stock tank next to the pond and put a Lotus in there instead. But mostly next spring I want to try a smaller variety of Lotus. Any ideas about which ones are best?
Advice about smaller Lotus varieties.
Yup, many lotus are huge, honking large fast growing plants when they get going. Leaves one to two feet wide, growing four to ten foot tall.
There are quite a few small varieties, with and without names out there to discover, which grow less than two foot tall. Allsorts of goodies coming out of China the last few years, plus new hybrids being raised
With the season for lifting and moving lotus being quite brief, finding a grower who really knows their stuff and booking what you want before the season starts would increase your chance of getting a suitable plant.
Don't be surprised to find some stunning varieties being listed on ebay for $10- $20 next Spring. With resellers and middlemen being a bad deal for growers and customers, getting them direct from the grower may be way to go in such a niche market
Regards, andy
http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l42/adavisus/
Try Texas Water Lilies in the garden watchdog. They have a lot of different varieties and some of them are very small. I know babydoll is a small white and they also have other colors as well. I would have loved your lotus............
Ohhhhhhhhhh tetleytuna! Drat! What a dunce I am. I probably could have tried to pack and ship some of the tubers. I will say though that it was pretty beat up. Just before I threw in the towel and dragged it out we had a week of very windy weather which meant the Lotus was on its side as much as it was upright, so there were some rotten tubers in the tub. As much good advice as you have given me I should have thought of you.
adavisus - those are very impressive photos. If you're not a pro you photograph like one.
Stunning, just stunning.
I would have loved to have it also. I have a couple of Empress seed left if you want to try them. They aren't just huge and this is their 2nd year. Last year I started with a tuber and one leaf the size of a quarter. It is late blooming but very pretty.
I have another one but don't know its name and it is early looming but very small. It blooms early and dies back and is just now coming on with blooms again. I raised them in a Blue Bunny ice cream tub last year and that was in a 20 gal tub. This year I built them their own little 'pond' and they have gone nuts but stay fairly small. I plan to leave them out this winter, I hope they make it ok.
If you decide to throw out lilys, don't forget Tetley and I.
Peggy
I couldn't feel much smaller right now. :>( Next spring I will have Colorado and Perry's Dwarf Red. Both are nice. The Colorado blooms it head off. The red is really good in a small pond. The red has stopped blooming but I think it is a lack of sun problem. The Colorado will bloom early and continue until frost. It even stands up to a mild flow from the waterfall.
Hmmm, one day in the compost pile. I wish I was closer I'd be right over.
I think this might be 'Angel Wings' it has stayed pretty small for me.
If you really want tiny, try a bowl lotus. They grow in about the space of a salad bowl. I just had a probably 2 or 3 inches of water over mine.
I'm curious to see how they over winter.
I'd like to see a picture of the pot you had it in and I'd like to know the depth of the water you had it in.
24' Lotus tub with koi guard taken in late March as tuber broke dormancy. This is in 2' of water.
Mrs. Perry D Slocum in late June of this year. About 1/2 grown! The roots had filled the tub, grown out through the koi guard, over the top of the pot, and were extending about 2' out into the water. If this had been an earthen bottom pond I would have been in real trouble. Now imagine this thing on its side with every windy day and climbing into the water to set it upright.
I probably would have rehomed it also. I have 9000 gallons so it would have been great in my pond.
Snapple,
chawan Basu has done well for me. I like to grow it in one of those black rectangular cement mixing tubs. Enough room for it to grow but still keeps it contained. I took mine out of the tub this spring but it has spread out a bit more than I like so as soon as it goes dormant I am going to prune it back and repot. Might have some extras tubers to trade but wont know until then.
Be advised that the smaller lotus do grow a bit slower than Mrs. Perry D. :)
Charlotteda - Thank You.You pretty much put that one at the top of my list. I've got enough surface area on a one foot shelf for another one too. As for slower growing, that's an OK trade off. Certinly better than me constantly climbing in and out of the pond and getting algae up my shorts.
I usually give any overgrowth to friends that have ponds or donate to my local watergarden society. The WG Soc. usually has a plant trade in the spring and a plant sale sometime in the summer. Your local pond supply store may have a pond to keep it in until their sale. I hate to throw anything out, unless of course it is Virginia Creeper and I gladly kill that stuff.
I wish we had a local WG group. The nearest one is located in a city an hour away. I tried to freecycle the lotus but had no takers. I hear you on the Virginia Creeper. Ranks right up there with Trumpet vine.
Unless you are one of those crooked garden catalogs and then the trumpet vine becomes the "exotic humming bird vine" which they try to convince you to purchase or you will never have a hope of seeing a live bird no matter what you try.
Snap, why don't you start your own group? I am sure there are other folks right around you who are wishing the same thing!
It's that same old saw tetleytuna - no time. I'm already a member of the municiple Tree Commission (chaired it for four years) and am in my 18th year as an elected councilwoman. Due to retire from public life at the end of this year. Might be a good thing to do next year. You wouldn't happen to know of any WG charters, mission statements or bylaws would you? BTW the elected official thing is for a very small uncomplicated town. "Retiring from public life" is a bit of an overstatement. It's not like I'm sought after or even noticed unless the garbage doesn't get picked up! ;>)
Sorry, don't know of any documents regarding water garden clubs. I would think they would not be hard to find though if you did a search. I am in the same position as you are regarding time constraints. The job I have has some long hours. If I only work nine hours in a day I think I am getting off early! That leaves not enough time to get everything done that needs to be and still actually enjoy the fruits of my labors at home.
snap, there is a koi club in Dallas....think that would help....if so I will try to find the URL and get it to you.
The WG club I go to is an hour away but well worth the drive.
I ran a Garden & Pond group in our small town for 2 years and we had about 17 couples registered. This year noone wanted to play until May and they just wanted a social group not any kind of learning thing. If I am going to take time away from gardening or ponding to drive to town, I dang well better learn something. I just didn't mess with it this year. Too many people had hurt feelings or imagined slights from some of the other members and you just never knew who was gonna be mad next. I don't do politics well, and am not always politically correct, I told them they didn't need me to get together and socialise, I would stay home and play in the garden.
You can go to Koi Club of America's site and they have all kinds of info on starting a clu b and you get insurance if you become part of them.
dylancgc - The voice of experience. I'll remember that. I once was asked to serve on the Board of Directors for a feline humane organization. I declined. A former board member expressed the same difficulties with his board. He was there to work. They were there to socialize and be "seen". I think rather than start one cold from scratch I'd better get involved with an established one first and gain experience. But that would have to wait. Along with the political stuff I also work. An hour drive is not on the table at the moment. Next year though I will have time. Most of all, time spent in the gardens and mucking around in the ponds is more important to me than just about anything else, other than family, the pooches and the spoiled cats (who are the ones really in charge). I'd rather have algae in my hair and dirt under my fingernails than sit around and gossip.
How true. I spend alot of time in my garden and around my pond, I'd rather be 'playing' in the muck than doing all the social gossip stuff. I don't know alot about what was going on with who but sometimes that is ok also. I had one couple I really enjoy visiting with & if I want to visit with them I call them and say ' come on out or let's go somewhere' usually fish related. They are also the ones that when I am having trouble and need extra hands I can call them and they come. The song, "you find out who your friends are" definately applies to them, they don't mind getting mucky.
I tell my pets, 5 dogs & 1 cat, that I have to go to work to buy puppy and kitty food. The house is pet friendly. If people don't like that, don't come to my house.
You and I would get along just fine! If the dogs don't like em' neither do I. We are at 3 dogs and 2 cats. (We just lost our oldest dog last Friday to Cushings disease.) Happy dogs, spoiled cats, fat healthy fish, gardens that sooth, friends you can count and health in the family are the real treasures in life. You can't ask for more.
If you ever swing aound NW Ohio, let me know. I'll put the coffee pot on.
I was thinking about Duke? the other day and was going to dmail you and ask how he was yesterday. I'm so sorry for your loss. Even when you know it's coming it still hurts & hurts bad. He'll be waiting for you at the Rainbow Bridge. My sympathies are with you in this hard time.
How I love Mrs. Slocum. It was the first Lotus I ever bought. When it got too big and did that falling over thing, I moved it down to a lower level in the pond and it couldn't fall over any more. I lost her when I tried dividing her. I broke too many growing points off and she died.
I have a small size Lotus now, I can't remember the name. It didn't bloom this year.
This thread is making me pine for the Lotus Plants I lost so long ago.