Lotus

Hi Gale! It has been a long time since I visited and posted on
rec.ponds. Thanks so much for the welcome back.

Sorry to say the horrible trolls kept me away.... now I just ignore
them

Nedra

Jan, I honestly believe that dividing lotus is a myth. These haven't
been divided since I first season after the pond was dug - probably
year 2000. I haven't even fertilized them this year. All I do is add
the water from the koi/fish pond - until the lotus garden is flooded.
Thanks for the compliment, kiddo.

Nedra in Missouri
Zone 6

Nedra wrote:

Jan, I honestly believe that dividing lotus is a myth. These haven't
been divided since I first season after the pond was dug - probably
year 2000. I haven't even fertilized them this year. All I do is add
the water from the koi/fish pond - until the lotus garden is flooded.
Thanks for the compliment, kiddo.

Nedra in Missouri
Zone 6



So you grow your lotus outside the pond? Just goes to show you how much
I know! :-P . For some reason I was thinking they were water plants
similar to the water lilies. Are they more of a marsh plant?
And I know what you mean about the other 'stuff'. I almost gave up too
until I learned about 'killfile'. That sure helped me!
My WH seem to be doing fine this year and my water while tinted has not
been pea soup green this season. Yea! Now watch me go out in a few
days and not even be able to see the sides of the pond for the algae!
LOL :-) .
Have a great weekend and very nice to have you back!
W. Dale

Yep, right you are, Dale. Lotuses are a water plant. I probably threw
you off by calling it a lotus 'garden'. The lotus pond which is
adjacent to the koi pond is actually a 12' circle - it is 2 feet deep.
It's lined and has about a foot of builders sand on the bottom.
I added water from the fish pond - then the lotus were planted in pots
and placed in the pond. HA! the first year they jumped the pots and so
it has gone... every year.

Nedra in Missouri
Zone 6

Jan, I honestly believe that dividing lotus is a myth.

Since mine don't have free rein of a whole pond, I think they would need it
at some time, but I don't think I'll do it next year as one of them went 2
years and did great last year.

Water Gardening magazine had an excellent article on dividing them, so I
can see where I've gone wrong and will have better success next time. Good
thing this time around I was so generous with my spacing between cuts. Else
I couldn't have completely killed it. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

Hi Nedra - God, you are just only back and I have a problem with the
statement below - My 2 Lotus are planted in containers - in containers on
my deck and after 3 to 4 yrs HAS to be divided and repotted or they get root
bound and stop growing and flowering and I need to fertilize them with 3 to
4 pond tabs every 6 wks until Aug or they die back early - maybe the fact
you have them in a pond of their own, not potted so they can spread as they
want alleviates that - also I don't know how you would fertilize them even
if you needed to - they do love their fertilizer
Gale :~)
Jan, I honestly believe that dividing lotus is a myth. These haven't
been divided since I first season after the pond was dug - probably
year 2000. I haven't even fertilized them this year. All I do is add
the water from the koi/fish pond - until the lotus garden is flooded.
Thanks for the compliment, kiddo.

Nedra in Missouri
Zone 6

Not to worry Gale! I know my situation is unique and that most people
do have their
lotus planted in a container of some sort... and I also know that these
lotuses have to be fertilized and divided.
To fertilize my lotus pond I usually have some guy who is really tall
get in the pond and push the lily tabs around each tuber. This is done
by 'feel' as opposed to seeing where the tuber is. The tabs haven't
been put into the pond since March 2004. I think the fish pond water
being flooded into the lotus pond suffices.
And the dividing - we'll have to skip that chapter as it doesn't apply
to my lotus pond... VBG

What got me started on having a lotus pond dug was a picture of Perry
Slocum's MPDS lotus lake. I don't know where it is located but a
portion of this lake is pictured on the cover of his (and Peter
Robinson) book, "WATER GARDENING Water Lilies and Lotuses". I had to
have something similar, hence my lotus pond was planted with three
fully grown Mrs. Perry D. Slocum lotus. As they say, the rest is
history.

Nedra in Missouri
Zone 6

Nedra wrote:

Yep, right you are, Dale. Lotuses are a water plant. I probably threw
you off by calling it a lotus 'garden'. The lotus pond which is
adjacent to the koi pond is actually a 12' circle - it is 2 feet deep.
It's lined and has about a foot of builders sand on the bottom.
I added water from the fish pond - then the lotus were planted in pots
and placed in the pond. HA! the first year they jumped the pots and so
it has gone... every year.

Nedra in Missouri
Zone 6



So you just leave them out in the winter? I know it can get down right
cold in Missouri during the winter! Maybe not as cold as Colorado but
still cold. I have started a little 'bog' pond this season. It has
lots of rocks in the bottom and my neighbor gave me a water iris which I
planted in the bottom. So far so good! :-) . I am hoping they take off
and form a mat of roots. I think the addition of lotus would be great!
I have a few in pots that are really struggling right now. Don't know
what's up with that. Maybe just time. Oh, yeah, my little bog pond/vf
return route is 18" deep. I will try to take a picture and post it on
my site.
Have a great weekend!
W. Dale

Nedra wrote:

Not to worry Gale! I know my situation is unique and that most people
do have their
lotus planted in a container of some sort... and I also know that these
lotuses have to be fertilized and divided.
To fertilize my lotus pond I usually have some guy who is really tall
get in the pond and push the lily tabs around each tuber. This is done
by 'feel' as opposed to seeing where the tuber is. The tabs haven't
been put into the pond since March 2004. I think the fish pond water
being flooded into the lotus pond suffices.
And the dividing - we'll have to skip that chapter as it doesn't apply
to my lotus pond... VBG

What got me started on having a lotus pond dug was a picture of Perry
Slocum's MPDS lotus lake. I don't know where it is located but a
portion of this lake is pictured on the cover of his (and Peter
Robinson) book, "WATER GARDENING Water Lilies and Lotuses". I had to
have something similar, hence my lotus pond was planted with three
fully grown Mrs. Perry D. Slocum lotus. As they say, the rest is
history.

Nedra in Missouri
Zone 6



What's a Mrs. Perry D. Slocum lotus? Is this a hybrid she or he came up
with?
W. Dale

Wilmdale wrote:

What's a Mrs. Perry D. Slocum lotus? Is this a hybrid she or he came up
with?

W. Dale

Why, did you know her? Here is the story:

Probably Perry D. Slocum's most well known lotus hybrid occurred as the
result of a friend's suggestion that he try hybridizing the native
American lotus, Nelumbo lutea with the very double pink Nelumbo 'Rosea
Plena.' Perry made eight crosses: 4 using N. lutea to N. 'Rosea Plena'
and 4 vice versa. From those 8 crosses, only 2 seeds formed. Planting
the 2 seeds the following year produced one weak seedling that was
discarded and the other, an extremely vigorous plant that opened a very
rich double pink, changing to creamy yellow with a pink flush over a
three day blooming period. This changeable lotus was named 'Mrs. Perry
D. Slocum' and is now the most popular and largest selling lotus in
North America.

His previous efforts started in 1946 when Perry received the first U.S.
Plant Patent (No. 666) ever issued for a hardy water lily, Nymphaea
'Pearl of the Pool', a very vibrant, glowing pink with many petals.
Forty years later, in 1986, he received the first U.S. patents for
lotuses -- Nelumbo 'Charles Thomas,' N. 'Maggie Belle Slocum,' and N.
'Angel Wings.' Today, he has patents pending on hardy water lilies N.
'Peaches and Cream' and N. 'Black Princess.'

For more see:
[http://www.victoria-adventure.org/mo..._profile.html]

There are two types of plants: SPECIES which come from the wild and
HYBRIDS that are crosses between 1) different species or 2) a species
and a hybrid or 3) between two hybrids. Species can be cloned by
growing from seed that has been pollinated by the same species. Hybrids
never can be expected to come true from seed and must be propagated
vegetatively, usually from cuttings or division. There are thousands of
hybrids and they are named by the person who registers them. It is
usually the hybridizer. In general hybridizers name their hybrids
anything they want that doesn't sound like a latin species name. Those
are ferbotten. Sometimes they are named to describe the plant. Other
times they are named after friends or loved ones. Other times they are
given amusing names. Some hybrid plants were named after tropical
islands, other were named after birds, others were named after
constelations, etc.

Another class of plants is a selected species called a cultivar. These
are also propagated vegetatively so they will always be true clones.
Usually they are a freak and not like the true species or perhaps a
superior selection of the species.

Actually in the wild, species cross naturally so some plants collected
as species are actually natural hybrids. If two species overlap in the
wild, the area where they overlap is where these natural hybrids occur.
"True" species must be collected in areas where no natural hybrids can
occur.
--
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18,000 gallon (17'x 47'x 2-4') lily pond garden in Zone 6
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA