Lotus and water lily.

[LJA]

Gilda sent us both of these divisions several months ago just before spring, and they're doing great! I was going to plant them directly in the mud of the pond, but decided against that since the water level when it drops wold have left them high and dry.

So they're in containers instead; the water lily in the upper pond, the lotus in the lower. I was worried about the lotus especially, and this way we can keep moving its container down the bank as the water level sinks and so keep it submerged.

This first pic is the water lily, grown quite a bit,




and this next one is the lotus plant, which has already put out several leaves from it's tuber.



I can't wait till these bloom for us......

Thanks again, Gilda!

[Gilda]

They are looking good Louis ! Have you fertilized them ??? We use the balls made for water plants....pushed down into the pot....they do so much better fertilized.

The first leaves on the lotus are "floaters"....then the tall spiky ones follow...hopefully by the blooms.

Does your water evaporate ? "water levels going down"
Is your pond lined or natural bottom ? We periodically have to 'top' ours off due to evaporation.

Are there fish in your pond ? Does it get full sun ?
I know a lot of questions...but nosey,.... I mean inquiring minds want to know.

[bench72]

Them's healthy lookin water lillies Louis. And very kool circular leaf on that lotus.

Not sure if I should ask these questions here.. but well, you can play edit if it's wrong.

So, these plants needs full sun? My pond, err, bucket of water (compared to Louis & Bruce's lake) only gets midday sun during summer, can I still grow and flower water lillies? And are there varieties that prefer shadier conditions.

How deep do they need to be? And how big are the pots they need to be grown in?

Water temperature? Will this make a difference? My pond gets cold... real cold. Not freezing but cold.

Thanks
Tim

[TundraKev]

Tim I can answer one question - the sun thing.

Yes you can. My pond does not get full sun and I've had hardy water lilies for years. I even grew and flowered one of the tropicals a couple of years ago. These are some that can take shadier conditions. You just have to do a bit of checking. Were you thinking about the hardy type or tropicals? I could probably recommend a few hardies if you are interested. Depends on the colors you like too.

I'm trying my first lotus this year, so I'll have to see how that one goes.

[Gilda]

Tim,
You don't need full sun for water lilys but you will get better blooming , the more sun you have...

Lotus, needs all the sun you can give them. If they don't bloom for you, suspect not enough light.

Pot sizes...for a regular water garden..8"-10" should do...if the lilys and lotus grow well..they will "crawl" out of the pot if need be..lotus especially have the "crawling" habit. Pots are good for them ,so you can keep them contained...so to speak. Otherwise, the roots go everywhere !

The yellow water lily I sent Louis, is the best hardy I have seen ...don't know the name, but it has more blooms than any of our others ,and they stand up out of the water some like tropicals do.

[LJA]

These have been placed where they get full sun all day, and I put them at a depth of about 1 foot. We just planted them from the bucket I was keeping them in last weekend, so they've done quite a bit of growing in just one week without any fertilizer. I imagine the lotus could go quite a bit deeper though, not sure about the lily.

Can these be overly fertilized? I imagined that there would be enough nutrients in the pond to take care of any fertilizer issues, but I could certainly get those ball or spike things and push them into the soil of the containers if they need it.

[Gilda]

Louis,
Since I posted this before I saw 'Pond au Naturel', I did not realize you had an abundance of fish poo ! So, you might not need extra, but a few pushed into the containers would not hurt !
The depth looks fine..just keep moving them deeper as your water recedes.
Depth is really important in the winter,too...to keep them from freezing.

[LJA]

Thanks, Gilda. Will do!