I like having lotus in my water garden areas and luckily they are easy to grow if you follow a few simple rules.
Don’t expect too much from the first few leaves.
The first small leaves were not impressive; they resembled very small water lily leaves.
After two or three small leaves, a large leaf spike emerges reaching for the sky. Unfolding, this leaf should measure approximately twelve inches across and be held about twelve inches on top of the water. It resembled a huge, flattened soup bowl more than anything else and when it gets wet, the water simply rolls off the leaf. That is all except for a spot at the stem junction where the water reflects the sunlight and beams away with apparent pleasure.
Once the leaves had finished expanding – and we’re now talking the end of June – the flower stalks started to emerge from the banana shaped root (or more properly a rhizome). These tremendously strong stalks reached up three to four feet above the lotus leaves and formed a huge fist sized, egg-shaped bud.
To make a long impatient story much shorter than the wait, the opening of the lotus blossom was worth the wait. We’re talking gorgeous here. A wonderful show of colour! Each blossom closed at night and seemed to last three or four days before fading away.
Lotus Growing Articles
How To Grow The two main conditions for successfully growing the lotus flower
Planting Secrets There are a few important points to understand about planting lotus or you’ll kill them.
Overwintering Lotus The easiest place to overwinter lotus is in the ground but here’s another thing I did one year
Lotus from Seed The step by step directions for growing lotus from seed.
Hindu Lotus The gorgeous Hindu lotus and how to grow it successfully
