Friday Fabulous Flower - Lotus

Not everything suffers from the heat; some plants like it especially when they have their roots firmly planted in a aquatic habitat.  The Phactor also knows he's done lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) before for a previous FFF post and another just musing (here and here), but they're such a wonderful flower and they photograph so nicely.  The lotus used to own the entire pond, but in these economic times it's had to downsize to a 60 gallon pot, and we will endeavor to keep it so confined.  As you can see the renovated pond is looking pretty good. 

Filling a hole with money

Yes, when you take a big hole and fill it with money it can look a lot better. Nearly 100 years ago a pond was constructed in our garden by the first owner of this property. By the time the Phactors purchased the pond, it was basically a concrete and rubber lined tub, albeit a large one, ~18 x 28 feet, filled with leafy muck and annually covered with duckweed. Fortunately our sacred lotus hid most of the ugliness and was quite happy to take over the entire pond. To help stimulate the economy, the decision was made to throw money at the problem and renovate the pond and install a water circulation/filtering system, and a nice cascade. The lotus is now confined to a submerged tank to prevent future conquest of the entire pond. It took the entire summer of intermittent work to finish the project, but the results were quite nice, nice enough to help you forget the cost. Of course now the landscaping has to be done, and nothing like three new Japanese maples to economically start the project. Here's a look, although from this angle only the bottom of the 4 foot tall, 10 foot long cascade can be seen. And it sounds nice too.

Pond Refurbishing Labor Troubles

The lily pond in our garden is about 90 years old and as it was not constructed with any kind of circulating system, it had turned into a marsh dominated by sacred lotus. While a happy home to quite a diversity of dragon flies and amphibians, the annual spring visit by ducks three years ago had provided an example of plant dispersal by bringing in duckweed which rendered moot the presence or absence of fish beneath the green expanse, all of which resulted in the decision to rennovate the entire pond. Enter the Pond Lady, quite crazily obsessed by ponds. She and her older assistant probably have a total age of around 100 and a total height of about ten and a half feet, so they employ strapping young men to assist with moving the cinder blocks, rocks, old cement, sand, and soil needed for the project. Here's the pond as it looked this spring with a couple of pallets of cinder block waiting for deployment. Pond Lady has been through 5 or 6 young men this summer alone. The last one, new to the job Monday, left for lunch on Tuesday and never returned. He lasted half a day longer than one earlier this summer who simply said, "It (the work) is too hot and dirty." Assistant pond lady laughs, shakes her head, and says, "They just can't keep up with us. We're tough!" How true especially when compared to 20-something marshmallows (my preferred spelling). In spite of slower than anticipated progress due to these labor problems, new plumbing is now in place and the pond is once again filled with water, so in a couple of weeks the project will be done except for all the new landscaping required. Oh, yes, the lotus, being sacred, was preserved, but it will be confined rather than allowed to roam freely.

Friday Fabulous Flower - Sacred Lotus

A few months ago, the Phactor endeavored to straighten out the confusion between waterlilies and lotus. They do have a number of superficial similarities, but they are not closely related (note the smaller waterlily leaves to lower left). A sacred lotus is the primary,that is biggest, resident of our garden pond, which was originally constructed almost 100 years ago. Amazingly enough it survives our winter cold because the pond is deep enough that it does not freeze to the bottom, and lotus thrives in our summer tropical weather flowering freely until nights begin to get cold.
The sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) is so called because of its role in Hindu mythology. Lord Brahma emerged from the navel of Lord Vishnu while he was sitting on a lotus. The lotus flower is a symbol of eternity and good fortune, and Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth is usually shown associated with a lotus flower.
The lotus is a lovely big flower, quite elegant, and the most pleasing pink color. My daughter has always thought the way water beads up and rolls around on the waxy surface of the large peltate leaf was most amusing. Enjoy.