Lotus questions......

[tinkster]

This is one of the pots outside.  I was taking a stick and just getting some of the leafs off the top and I pulled this up out of the corner.  HOw do you tell if they have been frozen.. if not that one tub is full of tubers.  And do yall clean all the dead leaves and stuffie out of your pots/lotus ponds.. seems it would be good fertiilizer but the water is pretty smelly.

tinkster

[Bonnie]

Tink, just from the pix it looks just fine!

You can definately tell if they froze, usually dark and mushy.

[Joyce]

Yup, looks good to me too!

[Eluned]

It looks like you have some good new growth, but lotus will overgrow their pots.  Even if I don't split and repot, I go in and clean out any old and mushy tubers or shriveled runners.  Sometimes I even split a pot in two and then add back fresh soil mixture.  (I use around 50% vermiculite, heavy clay, composted manure and then a bit of blood and bone mile, some potash and greensand.  The vermiculite will compress as the tubers multiply, so it buys you time between repotting.)  Best of luck!

[LeeAnne151]

Eluned,  Nice to see you, how are you? We missed you.

[tranquility]

  ....I'm soo happy for you girl....I know you were really worried you had lost them.....
Lawanna

[Eluned]

Hi LeeAnn!!!  I've been crazy busy with work, my two and a half year-old daughter (hard to believe) and the Koi Health advisor program.  I lost you guys with all the board shuffling, and have been posting mostly on koi forums.  I still have my plant ponds (up to 7-8 not counting the orphanages), but gave up on the tropicals.  We just don't have enough space to overwinter them.  I still have the blue taro Marilyn gave me, but that is about it.  Everything else is hardy.  Lotus are still my favorites.  As long as they have enough space, they are tough, but drop-dead gorgeous.  I have two lotus bogs, two smaller ponds just for lotus and then the big pond for potted bowl lotus.  My lilies don't get the attention they need. 

I lost Gonnerre last year (didn't repot in time), but dumped yards of dirt in the big pond, so when I can track down a start, I will let it grow wild.  I figure that Gonnerre and Arc en Ciel are well-behaved enough to turn loose.  Texas Dawn may stay potted. I don't even know what other lilies I have anymore.  I've given a bunch away (anything red or white and most pinks).  Mottled Cream Monster is thriving in a friend's mud pond.

Thanks for the welcome, and it is good to rediscover my coffee-club.   

[Jonna]

I'm thinking of putting in a series of small bogs to act as a biological filter for the pond in Merida. I think the closest zone would be zone 11, humid, hot, seasonal rain, never lower than the high 50's low 60's at night.  Would lotus function in a bog filter? If they had their own small bog to live in?  Is it a problem if they never have cold to die back, it seems that they do like constant warmth so I guess they'd grow all year, would they bloom all year?