The lotus flower is a beautiful and very recognizable flower. It can grow in a wide variety of climates and is most commonly found in India, China, Japan, and Korea. It can be easily grown all through the US yet it is not commonly seen. They are inexpensive to grow and super easy to take care of. This is a very fun project especially if you have kids. I wrote this article to help others have success in growing the lotus flower and the supplies will cost you anywhere from $.99 to $15 max.
Some of you may already own a lotus flower and not even know it. They are commonly seen in those dried up arrangements scene in hobby stores. And they look like this:
The first step is to source your seeds. The seeds are viable even after long periods of time. So even if you have one of those dried-up arrangements that is 10 years old it will still probably grow. If you do not have the seeds you can visit a local hobby shop and get a dried-up lotus flower or simply purchase them on eBay (usually 10 seeds for one US dollar)
How to prep the seeds: you want to score the seed using sandpaper, a nail file, rubbing it on concrete, or a table grinder. You want to take off enough of that outershell until you start to see a little bit of white. It should look similar to this:
Place the seeds in a cup of water and change the water about two times a day. The cup can be kept indoors next to the sink so you don’t forget to change the water. You will be shocked at how fast they will begin to grow. Within a few days you will see them begin to sprout. When the sprouts become 4 to 8 inches long it is now time to take them outside and plant.
The lotus plant does not require any special dirt but it should meet certain requirements.
I used old dirt from the yard, which was almost like sand. You want dirt that reminds you of the edge of a lake. It needs to be dense enough to keep the seeds from floating away and it should not contain fertilizer. If you are lucky enough to be near a hardware store that sells Clay or topsoil (without the mulch mix then) you can just pick it up from the store.
Fill your plant container with 6+ inches of soil then fill the container with water just to the top of the soil. Walmart sells 17gallon containers for under $7 which will work great. With your finger you can poke a hole 2 to 3 inches deep and place a seed in it. The lotus plant does require a lot of space so be sure not to place them too close to each other. Once they are planted gently fill the pot with water 3 to 4 inches above the soil line. The plants can be put into full sun or partial sun.
That is it!
The initial leaves will be approximately 2 inches across and they are meant to float on water. They will rapidly begin to grow and each plant will have three or four floating leaves in no time. The next stage is the freestanding leaf. That will rise out of the water and after a number of them are present the smaller floating leaves will begin to die off. Once you have three freestanding leaves per plant out of the water you may now fertilize. In a few more months you will have a lotus flowers!!!
Here is a few from my yard that are a few weeks old: