Thanks for posting this Brenda! I'm also looking to put in a few lotus plantings in my pond. I've had good luck with regular type pond lilies, but lotus are a bit special to me. Pat

Try McAllister's water gardens in Yountville on hwy 29. They open sometime in March, I think. I think I put them in the Northern Ca Gardens FAQ. Sue

I live in SoCal, but tried for two years to grow lotus plants here. They are easy to sprout from seed, following specific directions, but all my seedlings died the first year. I bought five lotus roots on eBay, from different sellers, including Momo Boton, setting the two miniature lotus roots up in pots underwater in my pre-fab pond. Both miniatures died. Two regular sized lotus plants came back last year, and grew okay, but neither bloomed. (I lost the tags, don't know their names.) They are growing in two of those large tubs you use to mix party drinks. One is breaking dormancy now. Tiny bugs sometimes encrust the emerging leaves. A bug spray kills the leaves as well as the bugs. I've tried scraping the bugs off by hand, and that works briefly.
The tubulars are available for only a few weeks, and must be shipped and planted completely dormant. People do grow them here successfully. There's even an urban pond here in Los Angeles where they have a lotus festival. I hope to try growing the common pink variety this year, which may be the most vigorous. Good luck with it.

McAllisters is now a vineyard. I'm in Napa and I have a few lotus. I got most of mine on ebay. They grow really fast so you need to go into the mud every year and leave just one tuber. I grow them in large pots. Don't put them in your pond unless you don't care if they take over everything!.

In winter they need protection from the hard frost so my pots are on wheels and I move them to protected places

Moto Botan is a good one and there are other small ones which take to growing in a pot better.

If you need more infor on growing let me know. Penny

Alta, could those tiny bugs be aphids? I know that lotus is sometimes attacked by those. I've also heard that starting them from seed is easy, but keeping them alive beyond new leaf growth is the hard part.

Here is the recipe I have ready for when I finally find a tuber to adopt. :D Posted by joyce on the Ponds forum -

"Here is my planting method, which for me, gets blooms by mid summer through fall, no matter what kind of lotus you start with. "I fill my wine barrels about 3/4 with composted cow manure, but plain old compost can be used too. Before putting the compost in, put one cup of Osmocote (Veggie Formula) or Multicote (Veggie Formula) at the bottom (these are NOT your typical water soluable fertilizers...please read the entire label on the container to understand exactly how they work). I do NOT recommend any other kind of fertilizer with my lotus in a barrel planting method. You will NOT get the same results as I do unless you follow my instructions precisely: PLEASE NO SUBSTITUTING! "Gently lay the lotus tubers on top of the compost. (you can make a little depression and nestle the tuber into it) Then gently cover the tubers with about 1\-2" of pea gravel, keeping the growing tips above the gravel. Gently, slowly add water until 3\-4" of water covers the gravel. Then do nothing but top off the barrel(s) when the water gets low, and watch the lotus grow and bloom. DO NOT ADD ANY MORE FERTILIZER...at all. Osmocote and Multicote are time released, and will last through fall. "Remember, besides the Osmocote/Multicote, compost is LOADED with all sorts of micronutrients which your lotus will devour. "Regular potting soil or clay, or topsoil does NOT have all the micronutrients that compost has. "That is why composted cow manure is the best, with regular compost coming in second place."

Penny, from what I gather, lotus is hardy in USDA zones 4-11, so unless there is fear that the tuber itself will freeze, the plant should be safe, at least in my CA zone.

I'll definitely be using a separate container that will hold only the lotus. I just don't have room in my regular pond. :)

I was really hoping to find a local place to get a tuber, but it looks like I'll be visiting the Texas Waterlilies website (or similar) soon.

Thanks so much for your help, everyone! Any others with info are invited to post, too.

Brenda

Thanks Youreit so much for posting this information. I read this post last year, and tried using clay from my garden with the Osmocote, and two of the lotus lived but didnÂt bloom. What do you do for the following year? Do you take out the roots and start all over again?
I had read about the compost, and was wondering how to keep the composted cow manure from floating off. The pea gravel sounds like it would work. Other posts said not to use the cow manure, and I didnÂt, but that really didnÂt work either.
The Osmocote is slowly released according to temperature, and IÂve heard a comment that when we start getting our really hot weather in July and August here, the Osmocote "dumps", releases too much, and itÂs spent up faster than in other parts of the country. That happens here with roses. I can put down a supposed 14 month supply of Osmocote on my rose bushes in January, and itÂs gone by mid July.
I donÂt know what the bugs on the lotus shoots were.
The Huntington Gardens here is opening a new Chinese garden complete with a lotus pond: "Lotus plants in the lake add a sense of winter to the garden". The picture shows a bunch of colorful floating dead lotus leaves, a pod. Did the garden import a stack of dead lotus leaves for this effect? Or did they plant them, and their lotus died too? Interesting. I hope to go there next week when it's open to the public.

Here is a link that might be useful: Huntington's Lotus Pond in Winter

Alta, as Penny mentioned, it's a good idea to clear out the extra tuberous growth every year, leaving only one main tuber, especially when growing in a limited space, such as large containers. Otherwise, lotus will definitely take over whatever space it can. :) There are a couple of great threads going right now over in the Ponds forum gallery section. Lots of info and pics.

I think the posts that talk about not using the cow manure were referring to uncomposted manure, which can burn the tuber(s). For mine (whenever I get this thing going! LOL), I think I will just buy some compost to use. I suppose just letting the water trickle in would be the best approach, so as to prevent that floating of the planting media, as you mentioned.

I'm not sure about the Osmocote, but one thing I've learned about fertilizer is that, if a plant is given TOO much, it will put out plenty of greenery with no blooms. I really don't know if the same would apply with lotuses, though. Maybe Joyce over in the Ponds forum can answer some questions about Osmocote and heat.

LOL!!! @ "a sense of winter." Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. Obviously, their plants don't stay green all year. Since they're in a lake, they can afford to leave the lotus to nature and not clean up dead plant debris or divide their tubers. I bet it will be gorgeous when the weather warms up, though!

Brenda

There's a place down on Grantline Road that has lots of water plants. The name just isn't coming to me right now. Check the Saturday Bee, Home & Garden section (which I don't like the new format/page size), as they advertise in there all the time. I've also been to the Sunday Farmer's Market under the freeway in Sac, and this company sells there. Oh, it's coming to me - FloraTropicana or something like that.

I saw beautiful Lotus blooming up off of Highway 50 in a pond on like Diamond Springs road. Good luck - I LOVE Lotus, but had to give up my pond for a new husband!!

Brenda,

Golden Pond Water Plants in Loomis is a great place to check for all sorts of aquatic plants. They are on Sierra College Rd just a little north of Hwy 80. I purchased a "Charles Thomas" from them about 5 years ago, but it hasn't done very well. It comes back each spring but doesn't bloom. I may have to try picking up a new variety this year. Maybe I didn't get a particularly robust individual...

They also have dozens of water lilies. I bought three hardy types that do so well I need to divide them each year.

In years past they did not open until later in the spring (I think the beginning of April or May?)

Mike

I was in Lotus heaven a couple of weeks ago as I have in Thailand and they are everywhere. Cambodia too. Many in huge
pots. I asked if they divided them yearly and they said no in most cases. The one thing I noticed was how hot the water was when I stuck my finger in.

Penny

Thanks so much for the new local sources, Tracy & Mike! I've been wanting to visit Flora Tropicana for quite some time, but I'd forgotten all about it. And good to hear of Golden Pond, too!

This year is definitely out for growing one, unless I can find a good deal on one already started and ready to go...but those are usually too expensive for my blood. :D

I can't wait to visit those 2 pond plant nurseries. Penny, a lady on the Ponds forum, Mary_O, once posted pics of lotus and water lilies in Thailand and Cambodia. I can definitely see why you were in awe! Amazing growing conditions there, that's for sure!

Brenda

It's not to late for lotus in our area. Mine have not sprouted from their pots and I plan to redo all of them. Penny

I hope it's not too late also. I bought a lotus tuber on eBay, and it shipped today.
Another e-nursery that sells and ships great water lilies has a special formula fertilizer pellet for lotus, different from the water lily pellets. I ordered some of those as well, and will give them a try.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lotus fertilizer tabs

As long as you have a tuber on the way, it's not too late, Alta, as Penny mentioned. Trying to find local sources of tubers has been tough, and I think I waited too long to order online. Just so many other goodies needing my attention in the garden right now. :)

Brenda

A search right now on eBay for "lotus plant tuber" in the Garden section brought up 35 plants for sale, with a message that there were only two weeks left to buy lotus tubers. There are several local nurseries here that sell lotus plants, but they're asking three to five times in price what I paid on eBay, even with postage.

Gee, thanks alot, Brenda and all of the rest of you!
I spent two hours and losts of dough last night buying lotus tubers after reading this thread. The cheap sellers on EBay wouldn't ship to California, so I went to Texas Waterlilies. They were sold out of most varieties, but I got a nice yellow one called Perry's Sunburst. Do people recommend the commercially composted steer manure from Home Depot? It seems like it would be too hot for a tuber.

It sounds like that compost would work. Check out Joyce's recipe I posted above on Feb. 20th, where she mentions using composted cow manure. I recall one of her posts where she said that as long as it's well composted, it won't burn the tubers.

Texas Waterlilies is going to be my first mail-order choice when I finally get a lotus, too! They have a good reputation and really great prices. Buying locally - especially plants that are already growing, not just the bare tubers - is definitely not very cost-efficient. Maybe if I win the lottery....:D

Brenda

My lotus tuber from Jandjaquafarms on eBay wasn't that expensive. It arrived last Thursday with two green leaves. The tuber was a medium size one, and is weighted down by a rock in garden soil in its lotus pot. The water should be nice and warm for it, with the heat wave we're having. My other two lotus pots are perking up, putting out more green leaves above the water level. Perhaps this will be the year for flowers.

Just had to report that we took a trip to Flora Tropicana the other day, and it was gorgeous! We spent over 2 hours there and brought home 3 plants - Colocasia 'Blue Hawaii', Acer 'Orangeola', and for mom, a "giant water calla." No-go on the lotus, though. They didn't have tubers, but they had plants ready to go in little tubs (3 gal.?)...for $55. *gulp* No, thanks! :D

Great way to spend the day in Elk Grove, though.

Brenda

Well, I repotted one lotus using the directions above. However it has been a week and the compost is still floating abit and lifting the gravel up. I have 3 more to do but I'm wondering if I should have used mud on top of the compost to hold it down. Anyone having these issues. Penny

You might try an inch of pea gravel over your soil. The instructions that came with my water plants said not to use compost, but to use ordinary, heavy clay garden soil, over three fertilizer tabs per 3 gallon pot. The new lotus fertilizer tabs are convenient. The new lotus is doing fine, as are my two older lotus pots. Putting mosquito fish in the pots has helped a lot with the bug problem.

It looks like it's working! Like a witch's stew or something! I think I will redo the whole thing before I do the others!

My mosquito fish cooked when I put them in. They can't live over 80 degrees. I use mosquito dunks and break them apart and works well.

Penny