vivap waterlily propagation, NEW THREAD

HI FLOWER, Welcome back. I'm so excited for you to start classes and teach-WOW, what joy, but I sure have missed you. Hope you had a good visit with your friend for the summer. My sister is over the student housing at Clemson university and with the economy what it is, they weren't expecting as many students this year but got fooled when students started rolling in and filled the dorms. More than ever this year. She is working so much overtime trying to get things caught up to speed. Such an exciting time of life for the kids. Hope everything goes great for you this year and enjoy the teaching , too. GOD bless you little friend, you take care.

wow! someone has been going like the energizer bunny. :) nice to hear from you again flower. hi mekos!

well, here is my first mature vivap - three buds! from node to blooms in just under 3 mos!

here is a larger view of the mature vivap plus a smaller one that was recently moved from the incubator. just for reference, the pan is 24" x 32".

Hey Tucson, that is amazing. I found out green smoke can't be done that way though. Sorry, but maybe it will have babies when I take it up for winter.
Flower! Got to tell you, Baby girl Tina bloomed for me today!!!!!!!!! I got a bloom!!!!! We are grannys or something. Look!

Here is green smoke today.Isn't it georgeous?!? I'm in heaven. I love it.I might try to do another tina this fall when it will have to lose the pads anyway to be stored for winter.

glad to see your tina is blooming mekos. what an astounding fragrance she has! is green smoke very fragrant? i like the look of it with all of those petals.

OH yes, you walk out there to my pond and the fragrance is wonderful. I also have hardy lilies that bloom off and on but green smoke has a bloom every day and sometimes several all at once. I love it and the tips on the outer edge of green smoke is tipped in purple, just the very tips of the bottom petals. It has a blueish haze to it sometimes also. It's strange. And my aquatics place is giving me a code to give out on the auction thread for the winners or to members so when they order, they get a discount from them. If you are interested, as soon as I get the code, I'll let you know. they are setting up the new web site now to be able to tell which people come from the garden club-these will use the code and get discounts outside here, no discounts. They will get back to me as soon as it's ready.

My Baby Girl Tina is making new babies on her pads. I went out to check on her yesterday and looked at the pads and there was the little thingys on there. I guess I'll pull a few and see if they will grow in a pot and leave some to see if they do it on their own. Which way is best?

i don't understand grow in a pot. can you explain?

I'm sorry Tucson, I mean in a tub of water. Pot of water-like we were trying before when I cooked mine?!? Now that the weather is better, would they do better now and grow in the tub or would it be better to leave them alone. there are so many pads with the little thing in the middle. The little pre-molded pond it is in has pads going out of the pot. Something is cutting off the bloom pods too. Maybe frogs at night??? There are no fish there.

i'm all about growing them naturally outside now. i think that you have to cut them off the mother plant in order for them to really do anything. at least that was my situation. the ones that i left attached to the mother plant did do much and eventually the pad died.

i need to grow mine in the covered barrel since we lack the humidity that you have. otherwise, the sun will scorch the vivap growing on top of the pad.

hmmm...you're making me want to try another one. LOL

Go for it Tucson! I'm going to try some again to see if I can get some new ones. It's warmer now and really humid and if I leave them they will probably get crowded out of the big tub, so got nothing to lose really. Thanks. Will let you know how they do.

i am trying several more in the barrel. i just cut them off of the mother plant and put the barrel where it will get more direct sun. the nodes actually had the very starts of pads. should see results fast!

I'm sorry I ramble so. I was remembering where we were talking about it being hard on the plant after the pads got cut off and maybe it would do better left on. But that may have been flower, talking about her tina a while back. I couldn't remember what was decided, so I was asking. I thought it might be better to take them off and start them since it was better growing conditions here this time around and won't be useing a grow light.(maybe they won't cook this time. (That was embarrassing, Cooking my tina).

my tina hasn't noticed any missing pads. i took three off today. she's sending up more pads and buds.

How are the ones you had in the barrell? Are they growing in the pond yet?

yeah, take a look at my post from 8/25. you can see one of them is about to bloom. a smaller one is in the tub also. it was recently moved from the barrel. i am going to have to look into a wider container. they spread out! :)

Tucson, those look good! Hard to believe it only took 3 months to get that size.
I think that web site screwed me on the blue Lotus. The seeds never came. I paid with paypal, and even contacted paypal to get an idea when they would ship, but didn't get anywhere. Just lost that money, I'm sure.
Oh well, I plucked several of Tinas pads and started them today so maybe they will grow this time. Gonna see.

Sorry, I ment to ask, is it better to put clay in the tub first, or just the water and stone to hold the pads down, then clay soil to pot them. Can they root on the claysoil?

good luck mekos! no cooking this time... : )

my barrel just has water. it's just the incubator. i don't hold them down in there. i just let them float because i have the cover on top that keeps the air humid enough. i didn't pot mine up since i don't have an official pond. i just planted them directly in the tub. i used kitty litter (see pics from 8/25) that is just straight clay. i had to rinse and repeat to get all of the dust out of the water. but you can see now that the ecosystem is just fine and the water is clear.

It looks good. I'm giving it a try. Will let you know how they go. Thanks bunches.

i hope you guys are all doing well. i just wanted to show you a few pics of a lotus pond in the middle of the arizona desert. i could not believe it when i saw it. this pond only gets water when it rains!

here's another one. i brought back seeds and they germinated w/i four days!

Is that anywhere close to where you live? Man, that is neat. I hope you got some seeds for us too. (batting eyes and begging).
Well if it is close to the same climate you have, you could grow some too. That is so cool, Tucson. Are those blooming white?

hi mekos,

the pond is a good hour's drive from my home by freeway. the weather is hotter there. i felt pity for the desert plants as we were driving out to the pond. even the cactus looked like they needed water. LOL

here is a pic of one of the flowers that i picked from the pond. i was told that the seeds came from india and what you see is the result of those seeds thrown in the pond last spring. wow!

mekos - i have lots of fresh lotus seeds from the pond. d-mail me your address if you want some. mine germinated in four days on the heat mat!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! I'd love some to start in the spring. WOW, that color is beautiful. Sending d-mail now. Thank you , you angel. That is so sweet of you. A friend is sending me some of the blue lotus seeds this week since the ones I bought didn't come so if these come, I'll gladly share with you also. Are you where you can dig out a hole for a pond? The ground probably is cooler than the air to cool the roots in that pond, so if you have space where you can dig, you could dig the pond and have some also. That is just amazing. Thank you so much.

haha! everyone keeps telling me i need to dig a pond. it seems so permanent once that hole is dug. LOL someone suggested that i grow plants around the edge of my water features to keep them cooler. i was also thinking about doing a raised bed pond.

Great idea, then you could move it when you want. Until I found this place, I'd never heard of a raised pond, saw some and just about fell off my chair. It took me weeks digging every day to dig 3 and 1/2 feet deep to make my first pond and tore both of my knees out and couldn't walk for months but I got my pond. Now I see the raised ponds and could have done it the easy way and saved my knees. (Our ground is red clay so hard and it had not rained for a month or so) when I was digging mine. Just shovel and shovel in 90 degree weather, hot sun. I'd never make it in the area where you are. Too hot for me.