Blue Lotus

water plants are fun,
now that all the major food planting is done,
I am off to play with some other neat plants,
the first one I am trying is the Blue Lotus
got seeds here,

for water plants you will need something that will hold water,
so I happen to have a cast iron pot that is 3 foot across,

I could plant directly in that,
but then I could not move the plants if I wanted to,
so I am putting them in a pot,
and they make special pots for water plants that have holes all in them, but not big enough to let the dirt out

the blue water lotus likes rich clay soil,
so I got fallen leaves and clay soil, mixed them together and added about 1/2 inch sand over the top.

now I take a few seeds,
I am going to try 4 of them,
this should give them enough space if they all come up, but not be bad of one or two do not.

now if you just plant them you might have to wait several years for them to come up,
but if you cut the seed coating open they will come up in just a few weeks
and if you try it with sand paper it is going to take you hours for each one,
so use a big sharp file (like for woodworking)

and you want to go down to where the seed starts getting white,
but don't go into the white part of the seed,
you only need one spot, you don't need to do it over the entire thing, 
my camera can't get good closeups so I have no picture.

then I filled it up with water and put the seeds in the sand, but still over the clay soil,
and filled up the water level to about an inch over the dirt, teh leaves like to float on the top of the water, so I will bring the level up later.
and here it is.

now I have to decide to screen it in, or add a fish to keep out the mosquitoes
but the cats will eat the fish, so I would have to screen it in anyway,
maybe I will just take the pot with the plants in it out of the cast iron pot and change the water once a week...

now time to put the rear seat of my car back in (took it out to move the cast iron pot)