The lotus is Perry's Giant Sunburst. It is a show stopper with large double yellow flowers that can be more than a foot across with pale green outer petals. And not only are the flowers large, the leaves can be up to 18 inches across. Pretty impressive on a four to five foot tall plant! I can't wait to see it bloom.
The pitcher plant is another favorite I've admired for quite a long time. It is a bog plant that requires very special growing conditions. We created a "shelf" in our pond for just such water loving plants. The variety is Tarnock with deep russet flower clusters that look almost like hop flowers. Very pretty.
Cleaning the pond was quite an ordeal. Pumping all that icky winter, leaf filled, tadpole infested water was quite the chore. The submersible pump kept getting clogged as we reached to bottom so out came the shop vac to make quick work of the remainder. Tadpoles were scooped up and sent to the wild stream and hostas were organized into their final locations. The southern side of the pond is shaded by a lovely River Birch.
Positioning and filling the lotus pond wasn't much easier...and who knew a tub filled with almost 40 pounds of soil and rock would float! Displacement really is a thing :)
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| Prepping the lotus pot with soggy wet soil. |
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| Lotus planted |
Of course I had plenty of supervision as I worked. The cat stopped by, took a look and sauntered off while one of the dogs decided what I was doing was interesting enough to watch.
After what seemed like days, everything was in its place and ready for the water. Filling is the fun part...except when you have to catch a huge floating planter and hold it in place until it fills with water. That part wasn't so much fun.
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| Almost full again and ready for the koi |
