High Cotton Lotus - Life is Good!

Nelumbo nucifera   The Old South Series  Loaded with flowers! Flower Color: Plant Height: Tall, 48” and taller Flower Type: Multi-petal, more than 50 petals Pot Size: 20” and wider, 12”-18” deep Pure white perfection!  My great-granddaddy planted 5 acres of cotton every year back in the late 1800's. He would hitch his plow behind his mule and open row after row, dropping in seeds one at a time and praying that enough rain came at the right time and that the boll weevils didn't kill it before it was waist-high and opening into big, fluffy balls of cotton. If the farmers reached pickin' time with a good crop the old saying was, "we are in high cotton." Here in the South that phrase still means that everything is better than good! Our 'High Cotton' is named to honor all those hard working men and women who paved the way for us today. This lovely new lotus was grown from random seed that was a gift from Dr. Daike Tian. The outer petals are wide and make a perfect plate to hold the more narrow curled petals on the inside. Particularly bright gold stamen surround a lime green receptacle to make this new lotus even more unique. Special thanks to Yann Mumber for the lovely picture!   HOW TO FERTILIZE LOTUS For conventional fertilizer (tablets or loose prills) which releases quickly when water is added: Wait until the lotus plant has several floating leaves or begins to put up aerial leaves before adding fertilizer. Choose a good fertilizer such as Waterlily World Tablets, Pondtabbs or Landon’s Aquatic Fertilizer and follow the instructions carefully. The amount of fertilizer to use is usually based on the size of the pot and the amount of soil in the pot. For example, most of the small tablets are added at a ratio of 1-2 tablets per gallon of soil in the pot. Once the lotus has started to grow vigorously tablets can be added every 2-3 weeks. Stop fertilizing in late summer to allow the lotus to use up all the fertilizer in the pot before going dormant. This encourages the lotus to form better rhizomes. For SLOW-RELEASE FERTILIZER like Nutricote 14-4-14, 100 day fertilizer: *follow amount directions on package. Place fertilizer around the bottom of the pot then add soil. Plant rhizome in the soil at the top of soil layer and let it grow down to find fertilizer. We use slow-release fertilizer but begin adding extra Pondtabbs after 3 months when growth gets vigorous and we continue adding extra fertilizer until late summer. Do NOT use 360 day fertilizer because it will release fertilizer for too long and the lotus will not form as many rhizomes when it goes dormant.