darlindeb..... and also others... I'm starting lotus seed...

Deb,

Meant to respond to your post from the 16th about using
Lotus as a cut flower.

Because I save the seeds, I rarely cut the blossom, but
last year I cut a big one and placed it into a footed glass
bowl. WOW. What a beautiful display. Look at Hobby Lobby
or even Wal Mart for those big bubble-like bowls with a foot.
Watch the sales, because sure enough, it will be on sale this
week or next.

Though it doesn't stay beautiful for long, such as petals falling
off and fading, it would, for one day make a stunning centerpiece.


KM

Wuvie - Did you take a picture of the lotus in your vase? If so, please share.

Dinu - Yes, they can escape; however, you'd probably have more tubers in the pot. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. I would guess it will take a year for your seeds to make tubers.

I've been out looking at information on the internet on repotting lotus and growing lotus. There are some conflicting views and info (I guess that's life).

We had snow here. It's all melted off today. I guess tomorrow I'll put my lotus pots and naked (bare root) babies back outside and refloat some when I get off work.

Thanks darlindeb. I prefer to experiment and I guess you will do the same when you read the conflicting views. Here is a collage picture of my plants as of today.

Awesome Dinu! It was Febuary 4th when you started these??? It looks like they found a wonderful home.

What do your friends and family think about your water garden? Are there other water gardens in your area?

When it comes to gardening I'll try different techniques-even the ones that conflict I'll try to see what works for me. Sometimes I invent things which is fun.

I guess my next adventure with lotus will be to try crossing different ones to see what I get. I have three seeds that I started last year. Hopefully, they will bloom this year. I was reading how you can't call a named lotus the same unless it comes from a tuber. I guess that means it's fair game to name the seedlings you raise.

Thanks darlindeb for the encouraging observation. That means it has shown good progress in less than two months! I'm happy about it, but I cannot compare the rate of growth because this is my first attempt. My family and visiting friends are awe-struck on seeing the pond - not many have even space for a garden! You don't know how much crowded cities are getting these days and I'm fortunate of having space and will to get my hands into the muck! Thanks to my illustrious forefathers. My children are enjoying the pond better than ever, better than the old pond. I think I started a thread 'who inspired you to ponding' or something some time back in this forum. You can visit there for some background.

You have to be creative and that is where you learn newer things.

Dinu

I thought I'd try my hand at posting this article about growing lotus. One thing he mentioned in his article was not to worry about yellowing leaves. http://www.victoria-adventure.org/lotus/growing_from_seed.html


The lotus that grow here get rather "ugly" as they go into the fall. Of course, the leaves die back during the winter.

Okay, thanks. A couple of mine have done that - smaller ones. But in general, they seem well. Here is today's picture of the plant that is growing in the pond itself.

Presently I'm just topping up the evaporated water. Do I need to change some water deliberately or will that be enough? I mean the plants in the two tubs outside the pond. Even the pond water is being done that way.

This message was edited Apr 6, 2009 8:19 PM

This message was edited Apr 6, 2009 8:20 PM

Dinu- I think that would be enough water. The ones in the container I'd top off and overflow gentle from time to time. I think as long as the water doesn't smell bad you're doing good. I would think you would start to get leaves that rise up out of the water soon.


I was driving back from Dallas, Texas this morning and I came across a radio station that is run by people from India. The radio announcer was taking jokes and riddles from 5 year-olds. One of the jokes that got on was, "What has an E at the first and an E at the end and one letter in it. Drum roll . . . and the answer was, "An envelope!"

Here is a photo of a tuber I'm going to try growing outside of the pond in a container.
I'm going to be doing a bunch of containers with lotus. I see all the very artistic containers they have for lotus in Thialand and think I need to take up pottery. . . maybe a winter hobby.

Lotus in artistic containers is what prompted me to try and resurrect my lotuses. I bought myself a large pot (came from Thailand or Indonesia, can't remember) and waterproofed the inside. It's already got the good soil/clay/compost in it, just waiting for the lotus. :O)

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with container envy and desire.

I thought the pots with the elephant cutouts where interesting, but I can't figure out if they have lotus growing in them or if maybe it's just lotus as a cut flower.
http://www.iwgs.org/2007-thailand-symposium/

The only thing I worry about with a ceramic or pottery container here is hail storms.

I have my seeds but have not started them yet... I am afraid I will not be able to keep the water level at a constant to keep them happy. The conatiners I I am using are the ones I started last year. They already have a small umbrella palm growing in each and did well. No problems keeping the water in them but now our humidity is staying below 7% daily and it has been very windy for weeks! The water level keeps falling several inches every day! I have to add water almost every day. Last year I only had to add water once or twice a week. I am running constantly keeping everything watered and with this wind and low humidity... thank heaven I have used the water crystals when planting everything or they would all be dead! You should see the places like Home Depot and Lowes.... constantly watering to keep up and their plants are still dry! It is sad.

I am so glad I came by this area today !!!!

I have lotus seeds that were given to me in a trade and I started 3 of them a couple weeks ago and they are sprouting and now I can re read the posts and know what to do to keep them going in my pond once I move them out there.
I was thinking of puttin them in pots with gravel instead of any soil since I do have 2 small koi in the pond.
from reading I think I am headed the right way?

I don't know about planting your seeds in just gravel. I've always done mine in top soil or garden soil from the yard. I do have one friend who has a high density koi pond and she put a plastic grate over the top of her lotus pot. The holes in the grate are are large enough to let the beginning leaves come through it. The grate was light weight and would not hurt spawning koi. Koi just love to bang into things while they are spawning and can get booboos and pretty torn up.

The lotus I've grown all do better with fertilizer tabs. You can get those from Texas Water Lilies or if you have a nursery that sells aquatic plants near you they might carry them.

ok will check into those tabs then

Mibus, you did not miss the bus!! Welcome to this thread. Thank me, I'm keeping it up!! :)

I said the leaves are leaving the water surface -here is the picture.

Increasing number of leaves in the pond, the one of White Parent Lotus.

my 3 seeds are open and sprouting up how long do I keep them in a jar per say before putting them in the pond

how exciting! I wish our nights would stay warm enough to keep the water warm so I could go ahead and start mine but I am afraid the water will cool too much. It will warm up a lot in the day but nights are still dropping into the 40's. Next week they are going to be in the 50's. Soon, I hope. Days are in the 70's and 80's so no problem there.

We finally got some rain. Only 1/3 inch and it was very fast... most ran off because the ground is so baked. I had to transplant some overgrown mums the day after the rain and the ground was still dry as a bone. I was surprised since I do water my yard and beds... guess not enough.

This message was edited Apr 13, 2009 11:19 AM

Dinu - Oh, yipee! Your green thumb may have to be upgraded to NEON green. I'll be very excited to see what kind of bloom they all produce.

Mibus2 - I kept mine in a jar till they had about 3 or 4 leaves then moved them to a container where they would be growing into tubers. I did make sure the water in my jars didn't get scummy. Also, no koi where around to nibble on them.

Tammie - I'm a little farther north then you and I've started my lotus seed in the middle of May in giant pickle jars outside.

thanks darlindeb then I need to find a container that is about the depth of my pond to put them in so they can grow to the "right " height so to speak and get a few leaves as I do have 2 small koi in the pond, but they haven't bothered the water lily I have in there but better safe then sorry lol

Hi everyone, I thought I would stop playing in the garden and take a break to post online here. finally we have nice weather to garden in!!!

I wanted to comment on the lotus' I have growing in my master bathroom for the past 5-6 week on a heat mat (from TWL co-op). I have three growing. I started one a few weeks earlier that the rest but they all seem to be at the same place in growth. However, one of the varieties started out with a small flower that lasted only a few hours (too short of time to get a picture . . . that was odd to me). It is still too cold to put them outside at it is still dipping into the low 30's at night. They are happily growing in a crowded bucket of water. They aren't at all as fickle as I thought they would be from all the descriptions I have read in books or the online retailers. However, growing from a very large tuber is something different than growing from a seed. I tried the seed (remember my cutting and filing jokes???). Well it sprouted and then died a few weeks later.

Something else I learned here regarding our frost line in the Chicago area. The frost line is 42". I almost died when I found that out. So basically I have to dig 42 inches down into the bog I dug a month ago and place the tuber in there and as it grows upward I cover it with the bog muck. I'm glad I dug the bog so deep...

I never would have guessed that deep. Why is it that our pond aren't frozen down so deep????

Mothermole - I remember seeing a list of Water Gardening Clubs that were located in Illinois in the issues of Water Gardening Magazine (which is no longer printed). Try doing a google on clubs in your area and see how they handle their lotus.

Today's pictures in this collage. Note the poor development in the two - green barrel and the pond -just one leaf each and not looking good. But see the one in the black drum - contrasting growth! What could be the reason for the poor or worrisome situation with the other two?

The one leaf in the green barrel looks like it has a ragged edge to me. Is some insect eatting it? How tall is the green barrel? What season is it there? What are the native lotus doing?

Native lotus.. I've no idea. Summer has ended and rains are expected. Green barrel is about 2 ft. tall. I've put about 1/3 soil and water to brim. I've left a pair of fish to prevent mosquito laying eggs in the water. Water is clean. There are no fish in the black barrel. I also notice no fresh new leaves appearing.

Hmmmm, don't know.

How long does the seed need to be in water before sprouting? I started 6 seeds yesterday. I scratched them until I saw a tiny white dot and put in warm water. 2 seeds each of red, pikk and yellow. The red seeds didn't have a white spot, they were brown so just put them in water anyway. Labeled the jar with red, yellow and pink. Just wondering how long until a sprout starts. Keeping them in the sun in the daytime and bringing them in at night to a warm place inside. These are the first I've tried to sprout.

Dinu-Does the under side of the leaf have snails that are eatting it?

Mekos - If you go back to the post from me dated April 5th of this year, you will see a link to growing lotus from seed. If you go to the article section of Dave's and put in Lotus seeds in the search articles box, it will pull up an article by Susanne Talbert about growing lotus from seed.

The lotus I've started from seed seem to germinate within a week. I should mention, however, that some don't germinate. Why they don't I don't know. It also takes me two years to get a bloom from a seedling in my climate zone.

Your first leaves float on top of the water. Later you have leaves that rise up out of the water.

Thank you. I was just wondering from start about how long until it sprouts and what would you consider too long? Like if some don't sprout, how long would you think until the seed is definately no good?

There are lots of snails in the pond but not in the green barrel I think.

Dinu - I don't know what to tell. I'll ask around.

Mekos - I think they mentioned something about time in those articles.

I'm gonna take a break will check back next week.

Okay darlindeb, I'll keep fingers crossed and wait.

I talked to a water garden pro and he thought maybe your seedlings might be too deep.

I know I've seen yellow leaves with snails in mine. Also, he said an interesting way to get rid of snails was to quarter a head of iceberg lettuce and let it float. His experience was that the snails liked the lettuce and would go to it instead of the water garden plants. Then you just scoop out the lettuce along with the snails.

I was wondering about the sun exposure you have in both spots (just me being curious).

If I get some seeds from my white lotus, I'll send you some more seeds if you wish.

I have some lettuce but that is not doing well at all unlike in my old pond. String algae is too much that it covers up their entire roots only to have a weak lettuce plant. I hope with the rainy season, things will improve on this.

Sun exposure is normal here. As you know, there is a tree on top of it but the pond gets good light and sun for a few hours a day. The green barrel does not get much of sunlight.

Shall I wait for a couple of more months to see if the seeds get back up? May be you can send them over whenever you can. I'll also be sharing them with my friend this time who also has a pond and likes to grow new ones. I mentioned about him before.