The Lotus experiment.........continued

Part one -
http://gardensofetsy.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html

Here's an update on my experiment over the summer, growing a lotus from a seed.
I had placed the 8 lotus sprouts in pots in different places, 5 went in my pond and two on my deck in a tub.
Well it turns out, the ones placed in the pond had a ever so slight trickle of water near them from a nearby water fall and in less than a week, the 5 baby lotus plants here did not survive :(
They definitely must be placed in STILL water.
Out of the two plants I placed in the tub on my deck, one perished ? and one flourished!

Here it is in late August ~



It even had a resident frog all summer long :)



The plant that survived ended up with 12 floating leaves and 5 standing leaves.
They were a Gorgeous blue/green. Such a cool leaf, totally waterproof, any droplet of water on them would just roll right off.

.... Late October now.... getting frost here in New York, so I needed to decide weather to bring it into the basement or place in the bog that was ready. After much research, others have been successful leaving them out in my zone, so I decided I would be planting it right in the bog.
We lifted the pot out and to my surprise there were shoots of roots up to 15 inches long that found their way out of the 4 holes in the bottom of the pot. The plant was totally root bound. Now I see how they can become evasive in a pond.



I decided to cut the pot as to try not to disturb the plant in any way.
(My husband so nicely did this part for me).



The bog I created is 18 inches deep filled with a mixture of soil and peat moss. I left 3 inches of room on the top for water to sit. It took the two of us to plant it with our arms totally immersed in mud. Had a lot of fun with it!

My finished Bog ~



So far so good. It loves it there!
Even in these cold temps down to 40 degrees, new shoots were emerging in the last two weeks. Fingers crossed.




Next to the lotus I placed a water iris in a pot for now.



In this last picture in the left lower corner, you can see the money plant sprouts from the seeds Julie from willowtreepottery sent me. Reaserch for my zone said to plant the seeds in Late Summer. They are doing wonderfully and will be a Beautiful backdrop for the bog. Thanks again Julie for the seeds and your awesome bog idea. It has been a wonderful adventure.
Here are the links to Julie's bog blog ~
http://gardensofetsy.blogspot.com/2011/04/bog-blog.html
http://gardensofetsy.blogspot.com/2011/09/bog-garden-continued-before-and-after-i.html
http://gardensofetsy.blogspot.com/2011/09/bog-garden-continued-before-and-after-i.html

I am counting the days till spring :)
to be continued.........................................

My bog garden wrap up

Bog garden continued before and after

I thought I would do a before and after shot of the bog garden.  I've been waiting patiently for the ironweed to bloom because it's so pretty. It blooms down at the river in it's native form which gets 6-7 feet tall.  My variety is a cultivar dwarf size.

It's been hot and dry this summer and I've lost a lot of plants but the bog was a huge success.  Except for not having the pickeral weed which was the original plan.  I gave up on it after the deer ate it down every time it would get over 2" tall.  I have native passion flower twining around the ground and up the hook that holds the wind chime.  My varigated yucca made an appearance after I had forgotten that I put it there.  The blue tinged panic grasses are doing well.  The pitcher plants are great.  I'm so glad I tried them.  The whole thing was almost maintenence except for adding water when it was dry (which was most of the summer).

So that is the bog blog wrapping up for the season.  I'll be posting about other garden stuff till frost but I'm so glad you joined me on this adventure.  Next time you have an area of the yard that won't drain or where the gutters always make a wet spot, try a bog.

Remember this?  

Now look at this!

That's passion flower growing around the ground and some varigated yucca spikes

Ironweed with feathery clumps of lavender flowers complete with butterfly