Lotuses Are Trending Right Now—and You Don’t Need a Pond to Grow Them

With the right conditions and their growth in popularity, now is the perfect time to start a lotus garden.

Lotuses have always been a gardening favorite, but the gardening community has declared them a growing trend this year. In the wild, these flowers can be found in lakes and ponds. But you don’t have to have a water feature in your backyard to enjoy their beauty—you can grow a lotus in nothing more than a pot of water.

The flowers are known for their impressive blooms that rise well above the surface of water, ranging in color from vibrant shades to ombre petals that seem to glow. If you want to seriously impress your garden party guests or just add a little elegance to your backyard, lotuses are the latest way to do it.

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Should You Plant a Lotus in Your Backyard?

First step: Check your planting zone. Lotuses can typically be grown in zones four to 10.

They also need six hours of sunlight each day and temperatures of 75 degrees or higher to produce blooms. Fortunately, a few weeks of high temperatures can help encourage the flowers to open up (so this heat wave is good for something). You also don’t need to worry about nighttime cold spikes, as the flowers close at night.

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Lotus flowers prefer humid environments—but this tends to be less of a concern when it comes to the outdoors, as the flowers receive plenty of humidity from the water they’re growing in.

How to Start a Lotus Garden

The easiest way to plant lotuses is to purchase lotus tubers. This allows you to skip the germination process and focus on getting your flowers to bloom.

Other than that, all you need to get started is a watertight pot, soil, and water. Usually, one thick layer of soil—usually up to 5 inches—in the bottom of your pot will be enough soil for your lotus to grow. You then need to fill the rest of the pot with water based on the size of your tuber. 

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Different varieties of lotuses have different needs when it comes to water, though they all require a certain amount of standing water—often up to 10 inches. Unlike water lilies, lotuses will shoot up high above the water’s surface, so don’t be concerned if you see leaves and flowers growing well above the water level in your pot. Since you’re not growing them in a pond, the water will evaporate over time. Therefore, you should refill the pot regularly.

Your lotus will grow blooms that can last for just under a week, giving off a sweet scent and beautiful array of colors for your garden. They typically produce flowers throughout the summer, beginning in June and continuing into fall.

Once your lotus has finished blooming for the season, you can continue watering it to ensure it will be ready for next year. Remove the plant’s foliage and take it inside or shelter it from the cold during winter months. 

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It’s still not too late to jump on the lotus trend. You can begin growing a lotus plant from seed indoors—which will typically take about seven months to grow to full size and blooms in its second year of growth—or try out a tuber in your backyard this month, when we’re expected to see a spike in temperatures across the nation.

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