Lotus Plant in Your Garden

Growing Lotus Plant in Your Garden

As the Lotus has such an elegant flower, and has many ties to spirituality and well-being, it is a fairly popular plant for people to try to grow in their water features or ponds. Unfortunately growing Lotus plants is not one of the easiest of things to do.

If you are planning to grow Lotus you should be aware that they will do best in a warm environment, and that they will require quite a large area of the pond in which to thrive; ideally a large variety should have an area of about 50 ft.² to grow in or be planted into a large tank of about 400 liters capacity.

 Even if you plan to contain the Lotus plants within a container, and then place it in the pond, it is still very likely to spread through the pond in the ideal conditions, as the plant will produce large runners. It is therefore best to plant the Lotus into a deep pot.

Your first step should be to fill the container with heavy topsoil to a depth of 10 to 30 cm (depending upon the size of the pot, and a variety that you are planning to grow). Next the tuber of the Lotus should be laid flat on top of the soil, keep the soil very damp and muddy; the roots will soon form from the tuber and in doing so it will sink it into the soil.

Once the Lotus tuber becomes established more water can be added to the pot. If you are having problems because the tuber remains dormant, then it may be worth placing the pot on an heating tray.

The first few leaves that appear will float on the surface of the water, but after this the following leaves will start to go into the air, at this stage more water can be added to the pot. If you are planning to transfer the growing lotus plant, in the pot, into the garden pond, you should be aware that the water needs to be at a temperature of 21°C at the minimum, otherwise the plant may die, or perform badly.