(21-09-2023, 01:24 PM)Oh_hunnihunni Wrote: And yes! My lotus has put its head up so I know it is acclimatising. The water temp has definitely risen in the past week. Having never grown these before I shall watch out for black aphids and avoid any suggestion of sprays. Any other helpful hints would be welcomed - I have aquatic feeder spikes or balls on my shopping list for next week, or slow release to make my own if the local Hammer hasn't got them... I am really looking forward to that pot putting on a performance!
It sounds like you have passed the first hurdle - keeping the growing tip undamaged. So long as it can grow around a round pot it will be now be fine and by the time you want to re-pot in a couple of years there will be plenty of growing tips for insurance.
Water temperature isn't any problem - frost in winter is fine. From now onwards you want as much sun and air heat as you can get promote flowers from about Christmas through to March.
I used to use the Jobes water lily spikes but Mitre 10 no longer have them. I buy other water garden tablets when I see them, or tomato spikes. The key thing is to feed heaps but without too much nitrogen. One thing I have learned is that Google searching can be misleading as a lot of information is about growing the rhizomes for food which have different requirements from optimising the flowers that we want.
Hopefully you will get some flowers this summer. Don't lose heart if you have to wait a year. The plant is fascinating and the flowers a treasure. Good luck.
(21-09-2023, 08:22 PM)harm_less Wrote: Our bed was established about 5 years back. The standout ones are the Pacific Purple variety. More vigourous growth than our green Mary Washingtons and sweeter, particularly eaten raw. The purples are ridiculously large now with 25mm diameter, 400mm long spears at times. You could virtually use them for self defence.
I love asparagus too - buy it all season. DH's family used to grow their own but when we tried a plant some time ago we gave it about 3or 4 years with no meaningful result so decided the space could be better used. We now have a second vege garden area so it might we worth trying again.