Hmmmm.....Well, first of all, my lotus have been very slow this year too. But.....it is possible that they won't recover. How deep in the mud did you plant them? How deep is the water over them? What is the temperature of the water?

If the lotus leaves broke off below the surface, it may have drowned the tuber. I had the same problem caused by turtles and lost 2 tubers but was able to salvage one growing tip with 2 leaves. I planted it in a cage where nothing could reach it and it is now doing very well. It has grown and is now putting up aerials outside the cage, 4 feet from the original planting. Hopefully the turtles will leave the new leaves alone.

The lilies will survive having broken off leaves but something may be eating the tender leaves coming up. If you can find them, move them to very shallow water and put wire cages around them until the growth comes back, then move them back to deeper water. I had to rescue my lilies twice before deciding to leave the cages around them. I hope that as the leaves mature they will become less tasty and I can remove the cages.

I had mine in a pot buried in the garden and the dog kept pulling out the tubers and I felt around all in the mud and thought they were all gone so I planted some elephant ears in there so it wouldn't be empty. Now look at the one that must have been left. Forgive the large bush in the way. I thought it was something else when I planted it there and it got huge.
Don't give up hope. It didn't do a thing for months then up it popped. I wouldn't plant them directly in the pond if I were you. I had one tuber last year and the dog must have pulled out 20 of them. It would take over a small pond pretty quickly.

{{gwi:214769}}

Nice Brugmansias!
I planted them 'about' 2-4" deep, diagonally, so that the growing tip is poking out into the light a bit.

Water was about 4" deep at planting, but is now 6-8" deep. It is quite warm, well it was for the first 2 weeks and cooled in the last few days, will warm up again soon.

Yeah, still nothing!! Grrr.
Thanks everyone.

Thanks, I hope you find them. I am so mad at myself for putting that shrub there. It was a tiny cutting last fall when I planted it and it turned into a shrub. Really messed up the pond view. I'm going to move it but have to wait til fall again now. I love the brugs on the sides of the little lotus pond and the statue in the back but you can't see it very well now.

LOL fool4flowers...seems like everything I planted around my little ponds have turned into monsters! I can hardly see my ponds now.
Good luck dirtslinger......a couple of mine are still extremely slow.....so I think there's still hope for yours.