Orchid Board - Most Complete Orchid Forum on the web ! - Dendrobium Gillieston Jazz 'Steven' x D. (Tosca x Rutherford Starburst) 'Red Wine'

Quote:

Originally Posted by estación seca (Post 801816)

The hotter the water, the better water lilies grow and bloom. You see in the photo a hardy white lily sold as Gladstone, but I'm not sure it's properly identified. I've had it since 1986. The tropicals haven't awakened yet.

When it's over 105 F / 41C, though, and humidity is low, some petal edges brown slightly. If I keep up the fertilizer regimen each plant has 3-4 flowers open every day from when it gets hot to first frost (if any.)

My pond is 4 feet / 1.27m deep, with half below ground to keep it cooler in summer and warmer in winter. I wanted it elevated so I could sit on the edge and smell the delicious tropical water lily fragrance. Also, the deeper the water, the farther the tropical lilies stand out of the water. I stand the 5 gallon / 19 liter tropical pots on bricks in the spring to get going near the warm surface, then lower them to the bottom. I can stand in the pond, bend over, and grasp the pot edges with my chin in the water, but my mouth in the air.

It froze over just once, the extreme freeze of December 1990. I have paper photos of a frozen Albert Greenberg flower standing high above the frozen surface.

I would never be without at least one tropical water lily, for the fragrance. There are a few that will bloom in a half barrel. The blue ones are true blue, and tolerate a little shade. The other colors need at least 6 hours of direct sun to bloom in most climates.

It's too hot here to grow lotus (Nelumbo) in the sun. I'm told they survive in 50% shade here, but I don't have a dog-proof shady area. Dogs will stick their faces into water to pull out and eat lotus tubers, which are quite expensive.

When I was a kid i grew tropical lilies in a half barrel... my fav was this dwarf dauben blue or something like that, i did a search and I couldn't find anything like that... beautiful blue, day blooming, and fragrant... didn't know they can handle that kind of heat at all, but good to know! With the few projects i've used waterlilies, i'd end up with the hardies even out here because the tropicals don't even start emerging til it's "warm", like regularly 80... guess it all makes sense!

That's great to have a deep pond... helps with climate control under the water I'm sure... and the depth helps with algae and prettiness (the dark bottomlessness makes a pool gorgeous).

Funny I just had lotus root in a tempura dish I ordered last night, hadn't had any in a while, made me remember I wanted to reply to this still... I had not known they they couldn't handle full sun like yours... I've only tried growing a dwarf one, forget the name, in a large ceramic pot, and it never really grew, it was in full sun but hey it is different than your full sun, but maybe the water got to hot? possibly maybe... thanks for that bit of info. There was a beautiful restoration just recently project that brought back nelumbo to a public park lake here where it died for various reasons. I love lotus very much.