Lady out of the lake
IN the summer garden, few plants are as refreshing or riveting as flowers growing in still water, and of those, none is as dramatic as the Asian lotus.
These are the blooms that have slowed traffic on the west side of Echo Park Lake for years, casting a spell with fragrant flowers, starry white to rosy pink, and inspiring a Lotus Festival, to be held July 8 and 9 this year. As flora goes, their beauty is obvious.
What many gardeners don’t realize is that it doesn’t take a lake to grow lotus. Colorful, considerably smaller cultivated varieties are available, and even the largest types of this elegant plant (botanical name Nelumbo) can be shoehorned into a small backyard pond or even a big pot.
Whereas the more commonly grown water lily floats serenely on a pond’s surface, the fragrant lotus blossoms stand as high as 6 feet above the water, raised aloft against bold, nearly round leaves. Though the flowers soar, the roots remain anchored in the muck below, which is why they are a symbol in Buddhism, suggesting the progress from the mud of materialism, through the waters of experience and into the sunshine of enlightenment. Buddhas are often seen sitting on a lotus blossom, and in some countries the plants are grown in large ceramic bowls for the blessings they bring.
Here, however, other aquatics such as lilies, water poppies and water snowflakes have become staples while lotuses are still quite scarce, perhaps because they bloom only two months in summer. They also can be hard to find, and when a gardener can track down the plants, they’re often pricey. Even at the popular, high-end Sperling Nursery in Calabasas, manager Liz Kimmel says her store sells about 10 lotuses a year, probably because grown plants in a big tub cost about $100.
Dormant tubers are much cheaper -- $12 to $30 -- but are extremely fragile and available only for a short time in winter or early spring, mostly from mail-order sources. Sandy Plawski at Waterplants.com says her company sells tubers to Californians in late January or February and is sold out by now.
ANOTHER challenge is the plant’s invasive nature. Plawski says larger kinds of lotuses, such as those in Echo Park Lake, can spread 40 feet in just one year on underwater runners. They can be contained in 6- to 8-gallon pots, however, where the runners just circle round and round.
Bill Uber, who owns Van Ness Water Gardens in Upland, compares the lotus’ ways to another pricey purchase, running bamboo, because both are “hard to get started and hard to get rid of.” You don’t want to let lotus loose in a natural dirt-bottomed pond.
Uber suggests an 18- to 24-inch-wide plastic container for some of the larger kinds, which probably will grow 3 to 4 feet tall. Submerge those plastic containers in a pool or pond so they are covered with 6 to 8 inches of water. Uber also has planted lotus directly in horse troughs, which he says are admirably sturdy.
In his north Tustin backyard, Steve Hampson, horticulturist at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, grows lotus in more manageable 18-inch-wide plastic tubs that are about 18 inches deep. He fills the bottom with a foot of soil, and then covers it all with water.
Even though the tubs are small, Hampson gets 15 to 20 blossoms on each plant during a six- to eight-week period of bloom. Each flower stays open for only about three days. After the petals fall off, the striking yellow seed pod continues to develop for the rest of summer, eventually turning brown. Dried pods -- flat, with holes -- are a favorite of flower arrangers.
Smaller varieties of lotuses will grow in smaller containers. ‘Momo Botan’ and ‘Chawan Basu’ grow 2 to 3 feet tall and have smaller leaves and fewer flowers. That’s why Uber grows the large kinds, mostly varieties recently developed by Perry Slocum such as ‘Carolina Queen’ or ‘Double Pink.’ (Lotus flowers may have a single row of petals or they can be fluffy and “double.”) He finds them easier to flower than many older lotus varieties.
If you start with the odd tubers (see examples at www.plawski.com/lotus_tubers.html), handle them carefully. The growing tips and the nodes in between are quite fragile; roots, leaves and flowers will sprout from them. Break any part and the plant is finished.
THERE’S some minor disagreement on how tubers should be planted. Uber and Hampson suggest covering the tubers with one-fourth an inch of soil, leaving the growing tip exposed. Others simply lay the tuber on the soil surface, anchored with a U-shaped pin or a flat rock.
When planting aquatics, always use ordinary garden clay soil, never bagged soils -- not even so-called topsoils. Lotuses also need lots of fertilizer, so add fertilizer tablets or granular phosphate fertilizer (Uber’s favorite) near the bottom of the container.
Begin by setting the container so only about 3 inches of water covers the soil. Then as the roots grow, add more water so that 6 to 8 inches cover the soil.
The plants should be growing in April and May, then after making leaves they will flower in late June or July, and the show should last into September. In the early fall, cut the leaves back before the plant goes dormant.
Lotus do best where summer temperatures are 85 to 95 degrees and the water is warmer than 55 degrees. Every three to four years, Uber says, the tubers need dividing and repotting after they go dormant. Save the two tubers closest to the growing tip, making the cut though the third.
Because the lotus is completely dormant -- invisible -- most of the year, Uber suggests growing other aquatics in the same pool or pond, though you’ll have to make sure they aren’t crowded out. The lotuses can pop up when it’s their time, but before and after, others carry the show.
Other aquatics to consider for the mix: hardy and floriferous water lilies in shades of pink or yellow, and tropical lilies, which come in neon shades of violet, red and purple. Both grow in 16- to 18-inch tubs of garden soil with about a foot of water on top.
Water snowflakes have bright yellow frilly flowers with lily-size leaves in marbled green and burgundy. Water poppies have yellow flowers with smaller oval leaves. Both float on the surface and need only gallon-size cans with 8 to 10 inches of water.
These typically last from April into November before going dormant, and can be complemented with aquatic flowers whose foliage stays green all year.
Robert Smaus can be reached at home@latimes.com.
*
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Blossoms within reach
Lotus plants are beautiful and exotic. They also can be expensive and elusive. Some suppliers and advice for home gardeners:
*
Resources
Sperling Nursery, Calabasas; (818) 591-9111; www.sperlingnursery.com.
Waterplants.com begins selling tubers in late January and February; (877) 752-6979 or (719) 267-4166; www.waterplants.com.
Van Ness Water Gardens, Upland; (800) 205-2425 or (909) 982-2425; www.vnwg.com.
Laguna Koi Ponds, Laguna Beach; (949) 494-5107; www.lagunakoi.com.
San Gabriel Nursery, San Gabriel; (626) 286-3782; www.sgnursery.com.
Mosquitoes
Mosquito control is crucial in water gardens. One solution is to stock mosquito fish, which eat mosquito larvae. The inexpensive fish are available at aquatic plant nurseries or regional mosquito abatement and vector control offices.
-- Robert Smaus
