Currently, the lotus leaves are beginning to brown and dry out; it had one blossom this summer. Now I do have a sciatica problem so realistically cannot lower it into the pond over the winter so need a solution before November. The plastic pot is heavy and has some soil at the bottom but most of it contains water. Can you give me advice, please. Vicki

Hi Vicki,
Does your pond freeze in the winters there?

mine are in pots above ground and I was thinkin of puttin them in my bsement....could I just drop them into pond? does the old brown leaves need to come off? There was manure and fertilizer used when I planted them...will that harm my koi? My pond is deep enough that it doesnt freeze

Hi Catherine,

Last winter was mild so I can only use it as a gauge but the weather as we know is so unpredictable. The pond did not actually freeze as solid ice but with the de-icer in place only a slight bit of ice was detected in one section of the pond and it thawed in the morning hours. So I am close to the shore area and when many folks are having heavy snow at times we will have rain. However, frequently we have windy weather as well.

What about the Calla plant; it is grown from a tuber, does it have to be stored elsewhere? I have a garage where I store my canna tubers and elephant ear bulbs. Vicki

Hi Vickster. I'll be storing my calla tubers (corms?...dunno) in my cool old basement where I also keep 30 odd brugs in 3 gal nursery pots. I've had one back surgery and moving all that stuff up and down the step old limestone steps was a huge challenge even when I was 20 yrs younger. Couple of thoughts/suggestions: If you can some help lifting your pots up out of the water, drill 2 holes on opposite sides of the pots with a 1/4" or so drill bit. You can use poly clothesline or anything else to make a loop you can use to lower and raise the pots to/from deeper water (hook the loop with a cane or screw in a dowel). The other tricks I've learned were to have a couple of dollies (sp?) to wheel large pots around
rather than carrying them. For carrying pots, take the wire handle off a 5 gal plastic bucket and use pliers to straighten the ends of the wire a bit so they will fit into the holes you drilled in the pot....makes carrying the 3 gal posts with a 6' brug in them a piece of cake. Hope this helps, Will

Lotus are hardy water plants so you can just drop them to the bottom of the pond if its two foot deep and a decent amount of volume. They don't want to freeze solid. Make sure that ALL of the leaves are brown before you cut them back. Lotus are a weird little plant that can actually drown. Since the stems are hollow, water can get to the tuber and rot if they are not fully brown and hard before you cut them back below water level. In the spring you can put them on a stand to get more sun and light to get a jump start, or try out a thermoplanter. We've had good luck with them so far. Or you can dump the roots and divide the tubers and have a few more lotus. They growth tips are very fragile, but its a pretty easy process besides for that.

Ditto to what the others have said.
Will.......good suggestions for lifting things up and down.
Gordon....just make sure your light soil isn't going to float away when you put the pots down into your pond.
I would be in big trouble if I didn't have my husband to help me lift some of these pots. Those things are heavy!!
I'm glad I finally learned that you can bury plants in the ground for the winter, otherwise, I wouldn't have had anywhere to put them. There's no way we could carry them to the basement.......which is too warm anyhow.
This is the time of year that's not so much fun.....putting things to bed for the winter. But I try to remind myself how much pleasure they give me all summer, and it doesn't seem so bad.

Thank you for your recommendations for overwintering the Lotus plant. I am still uncertain about moving it from the top shelf into my pond which is two feet deep. I will wait until all of the leaves are brown and then clip them back and determine whether it must be lowered into the pond. The other aquatic plants need trimming also.

The calla plant --can it be stored in the garage or can it remain on the top shelf as I bought it as an aquatic plant? Would someone respond to this, please. All of us are not in zone 7a, but if you are, I would appreciate your response. Vicki

Okay, actually, the pots are too big to lower into pond. One of them is too large to get into house, was hoping I could cut them back and dump them out to put into smaller pot for in my basement. Cant put them in garage as they will freeze. I still have some green stems and leaves so I have not yet cut them back.

Will I be able to put the tubers in a pot with some of the dirt/manure to overwinter without harming them? Does the media that they are stored in need to stay wet or should I let it dry out some? They will be in a dark basement with no light. I could put them elsewhere if they need some light though.

Yikes!!! I am really new at this lotus stuff!!

Catherine! Hi! It's time for me to also ask you about burying the lotus. It's in it's 20 gal tub and sunk just about to the rim (I hit boulders trying to go deeper). The leaves are all brown so I'll trim them. There's still some standing water. I thought I should let it go to gooshy mud.

What I thought to do was put a sheet of landscape fabric over it, tucked down into the tub and then pile about 3 bags of mulch in and over it. How does that sound?

Vanessa (back on the forum after a busy summer)

I would truly like to know what folks think of magdaloonie's question. I have just acquired seeds, and they started to germinate (July 18). Two leaves one day, 4 leaves the next .... My pot is buried into the ground and is quite large. There is no way my 65 year old body will lift that up out of the ground.

Can I cover it with plywood and leaves, or should I add a bale of straw for the duration of the winter?

I got the seeds from the orient, and they are supposed to be hardy to zone 4.

JR