We picked up a lotus (
Nelumbo nucifera) off another home gardener on eBay. This one is meant to produce blooms with white petals edged faintly in pink.
This photo is soon after purchasing, late December 2015. A few full aerial leaves and many new leaves coming up. It was only in a 30cm pot so we soon potted this up, I think to a 50cm pot.
Here it is, freshly transferred with some floating azolla and Elodea underwater. We also purchased some cold-tolerant fish (white cloud mountain minnows) to eat mosquito larvae. They are really good at it and even doubled their number over the summer! I will write a separate post on these fish soon.
Within two weeks (mid January) it had already filled the pot. This photo is from a month after we got it.
We never really saw the fish again throughout the growing season because
the surface was always covered.
Unfortunately, the lotus did not bloom that season and died back down once autumn started. The fish are all still there and fine. I guess we will wait for next spring when the lotus will have the full spring/summer season to grow and flower.
We had a little intruder in late January. This little frog was found hiding underwater in our lotus pot. It appears to be a Peron's tree frog (or emerald-spotted tree frog,
Litoria peronii) and was seen to change colour from white to green in an attempt to camouflage when spotted.
Very quickly hopped away and disappeared after being scooped out. Have not spotted any other frogs invading our water gardens since.
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