A nice Dg'er sent me lotus seeds and I sprouted them. I have two showing green so far and three more with splits just starting. Sorry about the fuzzy pic I took through the water. You can just see the green on one.
I did it!!!!!!
I see it! Congrats. Keep us updated with pictures along the way.
Update, Out of 7 seeds that I started... 6 sprouted and I just planted out five in the water garden. One seed never sprouted and one seed sprouted but is strangely dwarf and could not be set out with the others.
Lavender4ever, do you have a lotus pond going already? I'm making bog/marsh 'pockets' in my garden. I know someone who (by Wymore, NE) dug a 3 foot deep hole, lined it and planted lotuses in it. I'm in the process right now of doing the same thing, then it dawns of me to check this site out and do more research. My hole will be over 3 feet deep and 4 feet wide, and of course I want to find out which one will get the biggest and showiest in zone 5a. Any advice? Thanks...
I really don't, I am new to water gardens. I received the seeds in a seeds for newbie swap and had to read up on what to do with them. The kind that I have are the native yellow hardy lotus. If you would like a couple of these plants I would be happy to share since you live so close to me. We could learn together lol............
Do you know how big they are to get? I really need to do more research on these guys. Normal people would have already done that, before digging a hole!
well then I am not normal...lol. I always research after the fact. It makes gardening an adventure.
The yellow lotus grow very big but are so pretty. I have 3 different kinds to try to sprout this year. I dug 2 small lotus ponds last year and lined them with rubber liner. The lotus in them made it fine through the winter. Don't forget to add fish or mosquito bait to keep the skeeters down.
The problem I am having is planting them. I cannot find aquatic soil and the potting soil I am using they are floating out of.
When they are newly planted you have to put a small rock on top of the tuber to hold them down until their roots get a good hold. That is hard when they are only 2-3 leaves.
dylancgc, what did you fill your lotus pond with, soil wise? And what do you use to feed them?
I just used some good black dirt that I had hauled in for building flower beds. I push the water plant fertilizer down into the mud. I want to find some of those year long fertilizer spikes and put in all my stuff, I forget to feed them monthly.
Lavender4ever, Are you putting them in pots or just in their own ponds? If you are putting them in their own ponds I sure wouldn't go to the expense of aquatic potting soil. If you are planting them in pots you can use the little pea gravel and put larger rocks on top. Be very careful with the growing tip, if you break that your lotus will die. Use round pots for lotus. I put a piece of landscape fabric in the bottom of my pots to help hold in the planting media. The plants will grow through it but you can just peel it off next year.
http://www.pet-dog-cat-supply-store.com/shop/index.php?page=shop/flypage&product_id=21001
http://www.pondandgardenwholesalers.com/servlet/the-140/pond-plant,-plant-fertilizer,/Detail
http://www.gardenlink.com/AquaticSpikes.htm
http://www.petstore.com/ps_ViewItem-idProduct-HG20910.html
Decisions - Decisions!
Lotus potted in kitty litter mid April 2007 - just breaking dormancy. 24" tub.
Same lotus July 1, 2007. "Mrs. Perry D. Slocum" I used the Laguna spikes. I think it would be worth a try to use the other brand not encased in plastic if the middle number, phosphorus, which they don't disclose, is really higher. The middle number, phosphorus, promotes roots and most importantly, flowers. The nitrogen phosphorus ratio for the Laguna spikes is heavy on nitrogen which promotes leaf growth over flowers.
love the pic! I bought water plant fertilizer tabs. Not sure of analysis, will have to look.
Oh for crying out loud. I forgot to attach the picture.
That is a hardy one? Just lovely!
I sure hope you figure it out, lavender & 7oaks. I want to put one in next year, and don't want to look far for experience or advice. ;-)
Last summer I put in a Lotus bog, after buying 2 Lotus!! We dug a 4x4 hole that was 3-1/2 feet deep. All the dirt was piled onto a tarp next to the hole. After the hole was dug, it was lined with a liner from Menards. Just back filled with the original soil, after pulling out pieces of rusted beer cans, half burnt wood and other junk. Dumped in a bag of composted manure, and filled it with water. Planted the Lotus very carefully and they both grew and bloomed.
This year I can see them started to come up. Yeah!!! I told DD who dug the last foot down that if the Lotus survive, I would do another one.
crazy - That's a much better growing situation for a lotus then a tub in a pond. Bravo!
Thanks Snapple, I have tried the tubs of lotus in my pond and for some reason they would not overwinter. So this was my last hope, I just love the lotus flower. The only thing I really didn't do was round out the corners. Realized it after it was done. But I do understand now how they can really spread.
Really like you Mrs. Perry D. Slocum that is so pretty!
I'm glad I made my hole round. We've really been having some rains here. The dirt has settled some. I need to turn the hose on in it, seems silly with all the rain, but it will need lots more water.
Today when we got home from work, we saw the damage of hail right away. Leaves every where, plastered to the north side of the house with piles of ice. My baby carnivorous plants took a nasty beating. The venus fly traps have one or two traps left, the others are laying around the plants, some two inches away. Some pitchers were broken, others shredded. Hope we're done for the year with hail. More storms on the way tho...
Hostas took a beating too, even under the trees. I suppose I'd take hail over a tornado!
I'm still deciding about what lotus to get. Dylancgc, are you still hanging around? I'm wondering, do the yellow lotuses get big with nice flowers, or don't get big with nice flowers?
Lavender, how are your lotuses doing? Hope there growing for you. I'm still thinking about your offer.
The are doing great. the little baby leaves have opened and they seems to be getting bigger. I still want to find a better soil situation for them. But so far they are all growing. I do have too many in that one pot. I can always move them to other places though. I will post another pic here soon.
Lavender, how's your lotus doing?? The one I was given has completely cover my four foot pond. I have four leaves that are above water now, all the others are on the water, like water lilies. I put a couple of gold fish in there to eat the mosquito larvae, figure they will probably add a bit of fertilizer in the process...
Also, did you ever get any moss started on your oak trees? I did get some sphagnum moss for my carnivorous bog. Hope it survives for me, as well for every thing else in there.
Two survived and are doing great. They have large leaves on the water like water lilies. Still not big enough for leaves above the water though. You should post a pic! I will try to get a new pic of mine. I have some fish in the pond too. Sarassa comets and shubunkins.
Snapple: What is that "netting" (for lack of a better word) over your planter? Does it keep the fish out? My koi dump everything in my pond as if it were an Olympic Sport and they are going for the Gold!
I was given a digital camera, with no instructions, someday I'm going to make myself tackle it. I would love to take some pictures to share.
just a little update on my lotus seed experience. I had lots of small floating leaves this year getting slowly bigger. The weather is getting pretty cold now and my lotus went dormant. I had them potted in a big pot with some soil and a big rock in the bottom of the pot. I decided to bring them in to overwinter since my little barrel pond freezes solid in the winter. When I unpotted I was surprised to find only one plant. It had worked it's way under the rock and had a tuber the size of my thumb and about six inches of growing points on it. Here it is in a winter tub of sandy soil in a gallon cut up water bottle. What you see in the pic is a couple inches of the growing point. All else is submerged under the sand. Not too bad I guess at least one survived so far! I am going to try keeping it on my mudporch that stays around 40ish all winter.
Congratulations!
Hi there! I haven't been around much, crazy summer here. Good Luck over the winter Lavender. I was given one, and it went like crazy, then stopped, and started dying, hopefully an early dormancy. Next spring will tell us lots won't it?
The woman who gave me one, said her's nor a friend's bloomed this year. I've just now started playing with the digital camera. Getting some things figured out. Will see if I can get any pictures here.
Here's a picture of my little lotus pond. I put gold fish in there to eat the skitters, I wonder if they may be causing some problems with the leaves. Any way, the water is low, plus time to put the fish in the horse tank.
Well they seems to die and put out new leaves the whole time. So that is about how mine looked. I did have to keep cleaning aphids off of mine. the fish loved them. Mine went dormant a couple weeks ago and I thought maybe it died but when I carefully took it out of the pot the tuber looks fine. Hope it makes it over the winter with the rest of my water plants. Had to bring those in too.
All of those little round leaves are pennywort, I believe anyway. It's not hardy here, so I bring some in. They really took off in the lotus pond. I usually have them in a pot in the regular pond. Crossed fingers for our lotuses...
Sorry it has taken me so long to answer the yellow Lotus ???, the yellow ones get very tall and have huge leaves and large flowers. Very Pretty.
Congrats on all of your Lotus. You are on the way. I have 2 different ones and am always on the look out for new ones. After this 1st winter you shouldn't have to bring them inside for the winter.
Did anyone tell you not to cut the leaves off under the water unless they were rotted and slimy. If you cut the leaves off and they still have solid stems, the stems have holes and the tubers can drown.
I did read that so I did know that. Mine had gone dormant and rotted down on their own. Cannot wait to see it get bigger leaves that stand. Mine were smaller leaves that floated. They seemed to attract grey aphids quite a bit and I had to clean the leaves alot.
I'm glad to learn about "not cutting green leaves".
Next year the leaves may stand for you. Do a search for Lotus and you should find some very good info on them and the lilys. I would love to be able to grow the great big lilys that some people can stand on. I went totally blank on the pages I want you to find and on the names of those huge lilys. The edges turn up and they have thorns underneath.
Only 48 and already getting old timers disease. Amind is a terrible thing to lose.
Thay are called Victoria Water Lilies, either Victoria cruziana or Victoria amazonia.
I found this amusing link. See pictures 4 & 5 for one of the most unusual planting methods I've ever come across.
http://www.pondlilyfarm.com/victoria.html
dylancgc - if you find where your mind goes when it's AWOL let me know will ya? Mine might be around there somewhere too. I'm always looking for that puppy.