The Day the Lotus Died

Monday 08/21/2006 1:35 PM

I am so far behind on telling you about stuff I've wanted to tell you about... it's not even funny.

One of the many past-due news items things is that my lotus flower died.

Long story short: It was around the middle of May and I still didn't have any leaves on my lotus, but it kept shooting up and out of the water (see today's image). So I called Bonnie (the lady who sold me the tuber) and e-mailed her a picture. As it turns out, the part that was growing was not the most important part. She said I put too much water in the washbin and had covered the growing tip.

I dumped the water out to expose the tip (in hindsight I should have syphoned the water out in order to minimize any disturbances to the plant), which was a brilliant bright green (I should have taken a picture, but I didn't). I thought everything was going to be cool, but over the next few days, the growing tip turned brown and it led the death of the entire plant.

I swear she originally told me that I could cover the whole thing with water as long as it was secure so it could root, but a couple months later she said she didn't say that.

Bummer.

So after all the hassle of taking the plant in and out of the weather as we suffered through cold night this spring (wasn't supposed to expose it to anything under 50 degrees), plus dealing with mosquito larvae and trying to take care of them with fish that died within days, plus people telling me that the galvanized metal would poison the plant, I'm done for the year.

Next year the plan is to add a liner, maybe rig some way to keep it warm so I don't have to lug it in and out, watch the water level like a hawk and stay on top of the mosquitos.

Look for another update around February of next year.

Good thing my jade plants are still alive, though!

File Under: Lotus Flower

Permalink | Comments | Trackback

Previous Entry | Next Entry