The pictures are so lovely! Speedy recovery Joyce. You are incredible. So this site is not only about lotus, also about survival-? The lotus seems so full of life maybe there is a connection-?:)) I am looking for advice and tips too - being a novice lotus grower or wannabe. The lotus out on my balcony, which are all in containers, are struggling but haven't given up yet. I planted them in regular potting soil, so perhaps not enough nutrients, and they are getting half a days worth of sun? Should I replant them in early spring with compost? I have six from seeds, but I haven't seen an aerial yet... still they are trying but the leaf browns out of water... one grown from root has a few floating ones... which is probably Momo Botan, the seedlings I don't know. So they are not dormant yet, with Mediterranean climate. I really don't need seven lotuses, but who knows if they make it! Other question... the seedlings are in jugs, like big juice jugs, should they go into bigger pots packed with compost even now they are struggling? Thanks... Tarja

You don't want to cover the floating leaves, though, right? Fill it up as much as you can but keep the floating leaves floating on top of the water?

Well, I guess I am just assuming that it was a deer, but I do know that they are in the area, so that question is still valid. I've got rabbits around as well, so it might have been one of 'em. The strange thing was that none of the rocks around the edge looked to be disturbed (CD-sized rocks covering the edges, with pebbles surrounding), but 3 or 4 leaves were totally missing, not just broken off and hidden in the mud. And the bog was the only real source that could cloud the water that much (I do have a lily planted in plain dirt as well, but that's covered with 3/4"+ pebbles and the biggest fish is a 6 or 7" goldfish, no koi. Everything else is in gravel or kitty litter). I guess I could see some birds causing it since the pond has been the source of some turfwars between rival Robins, but that wouldn't account for the missing leaves. They also prefer to use the stream as a bird bath, but the pigeons like to drink from the bog. I've never grown bog bean before either (never grown lotus before but that's beside the point), but I was thinking that it would make a good cover for the rocks/pebbles/transitions that are going on. Some things that I was reading say that it can be invasive (then again, what water plants couldn't be considered invasive), but I don't think it'd be any more invasive than the watercress has been. And the lotus can invade that container as much as it wants - though I'm still wondering how I'm gonna divide it when the time comes in a year or two (It's an Angel Wing lotus - so one of the mid-sized varieties). Trying to remove the container out of it's hole is not something I'd relish tackling, I bet. I'm still in the learning phase though, having mainly book-smarts at the moment - aside from what I've learned trial-by-fire (mostly what *not* to do, thanks to the previous owners). This was definitely a "hmm, WTF?" moment that still has some unsolved mysteries about it.

Thanks tropicbreezent. I know that's true of smaller lotus in a container, but I was hoping it didn't happen to this much larger stock tank. I'm thinking there must be a lot of tubers lower down that are okay. But......when you plant a single tuber, you're supposed to have it very close to the top of the soil. We'll see. I sure hope we didn't kill it, but I'm not sure there was any better way of thinning it. I'm sure the entire stock tank is filled with mostly lotus tubers and roots. Maybe that part is still too crowded. Sure don't want to have to dig all that out and replace it with new soil. It was such a beautiful area when it was blooming. Thanks again.