"Heather" wrote in message m...
Hi Kizhe

Thinking about the warmth factor and not really pond related but here goes.

We live in Zone 5-6.

I'm Zone 5 (Ottawa), though my backyard is probably a Zone 6
micro-climate. For your email addy, you can't be too far away.

(Note to Americans: I'm pretty sure Heather is talking Canadian
hardiness zones, which divide our climate a little finer. The USDA
just lumps the whole country into Zone 2 (Arctic Tundra) and Zone 1
(Polar Ice Cap) ;-).

....Gladiolas are a bulb that are supposed to be lifted in
the fall and replanted in the spring in our Zone. A number of years ago I

Yeah, I used to do the Glads thing, until one Fall I forgot to clean
them and left them sitting in a basket in the garage in mid-winter
:-(. These days, the only thing I can be bothered to take any
seasonal trouble for is the pond & associated rock garden. Everything
else is either hardy perennial or dead ;-).

planted some within a foot of the basement foundation of the house. In the
fall I forgot and didn't dig them up. Next spring up they came and bloomed
well ahead of the normal bloom time. Every year we lived in that house they
grew and bloomed and I never dug them up. So....

If your sunroom has a basement and might leak some heat into the ground in
winter and your lotus are real close and you cover the pond with plywood and
something to insulate and maybe if you cross your fingers.... Well you get
the picture. Worth a try anyway. Good Luck!

Heather

The shady (soon-to-be-build) pond is right next to the house, but the
current pond is several feet away. However, we don't allow it to
freeze solid (since we leave the fish in), so I guess it would depend
on whether the tubers could survive sitting on the bottom at 2degC for
four months, followed by a slow two-month warm-up with occasional
night frosts.

Nedra, how do you overwinter lotus? From you webpages I gather you
just leave yours on the bottom. However, I think my USDA zone is 2,
and anything tropical has to be brought inside and put under
growlights or into dormant storage. I've kept a taro going for
several years now, and I'm thinking I'd like to try lotus.

Also, are there any that are good for complete shade? Pond #2 (under
planning) is going to be on the shady side of the sunroom.

-- Kizhé