Patio Ponds and Gardens

Lotus are related to water lilies, but there are significant differences in the root system. Instead of the rhizomes of the hardy lilies or bulbs of tropical lilies, lotus produce elongated banana shaped tubers . This will be what you get in the box when you open your newly arrived lotus.

Location

Lotus require a sunny location in calm water, sized proportional to the variety of lotus to be grown. Large varieties require large (25-50 sq.ft.) areas of a pond, and 50 gallon sized tubs. If your pond area is limited, choose a dwarf lotus. If the plant is to be grown within a pond, it needs to be contained. Lotus plants produce long runners over the course of the season and have the capacity to run away from their pots. For this reason, give the plant the deepest pot that you can. This minimizes the chance that the runner will jump over the top of the pot and take over your pond. The deeper the soil, the healthier the plant. The pot should be arranged so that the top of the container is 6”- 12” below the surface of the water. Any less and the plant can tip or blow over.

Planting

Using amended soil, fill the container to within 3” or 4” of the top. If you are growing the plant in a free standing container, fill it about halfway with soil. Cover the soil with 2”-3” of sand, and slowly fill the container with water. If the lotus is in a container within a pond, and there are koi or goldfish present, use a little less sand at first, follow that with at least 2” of black lava rock and cap that with the rest of the sand. When the soil is in place, lower the tank into the water. Instead of putting the tuber into the soil as many sets of instructions would have you do, we always set the tuber ONTO the substrate, embedding it slightly in the sand and weighing it down with stones. Allow the plant to essentially plant itself. The growing plant will instinctively turn downward into the substrate and will use it once it is in. Burying the tuber into the soil from the beginning can cause the tuber to rot before it gets established because of bacterial activity in the soil.

Lotus Plants are fragile when newly planted.

Many companies send tubers that are not sprouted, either in leaf or root. Always try to ensure that the plants have sprouted both roots and leaves. This ensures its viability, and helps to assure its success by getting it over the first big hurdle, that of sprouting roots and beginning to grow in earnest before the decay from the cut end catches up with the growing tip. It is just a matter of the plant using the strength that it has stored in the tuber before the bacteria do. Stronger, pre-sprouted plants have the best chance of doing that.

Fertilizing

A Lotus planted in new soil may not require supplemental feeding for the first season, but by the second year at most, all plantings will require feeding. The first several leaves will float. These are followed at some point by emergent leaves, usually the second season. This is when you should begin to feed the plants with fertilizer tablets. At the end of the season dead leaves would be removed about 1” above the water line. Every two or three years, pots should be re-worked, emptied, cleared of dead tubers, new soil added if needed.