Commander Lotus
Plant Description
Commander Lotus is resplendent in all its glory! Huge, sumptuous flowers drenched in brilliant-red with yellow-gold receptacles and handsome green foliage. This dazzling specimen will certainly command your attention! Red Commander Lotus will be the focal point in your pond or water feature this year! This exciting variety, Red Commander Lotus, is sure to be a SELLOUT! Fabulous, big, brilliant-red blooms on Red Commander Lotus! Red Commander Lotus grows to 4 feet tall or taller when planted in a very wide (24 - 48 inches) in diameter container.
Brilliant-Red/Tall/Multi-petal
Planting Instructions
Plant this majestic beauty in a wide (24 - 48 inches or wider) container using loam soil. Dig a trench across the surface of the soil and place your lotus tuber in the trench with the growth tips pointing up. Cover the tuber with a couple of inches of soil but leave the growth tips exposed. Add 3 - 4 inches of water above the soil, being careful not to dislodge the tuber. Place in a sunny location outdoors where your lotus will receive at least 8-12 hours hours of sunlight per day. In a week or two you will have coin leaves on the surface of the water, a week or two after that you should have aerial leaves growing out of the water. Once you have aerial leaves you may fertilize your lotus tuber.
Fertilizing Instructions
Once your lotus has aerial leaves, you may fertilize by pressing slow release fertilizer tabs gently into the soil around the roots of your lotus, being careful not to damage the roots. Use four to six fertilizer tabs per month, during the growing/blooming season (June through September). Your lotus should grow and bloom the very first year!
We recommend Waterlily World FertilizerTabs for optimum growth and best bloom and they are very easy to use!
What Is Loam Soil?
Loam soil is a good mixture of Topsoil and Sand
If you are lucky enough to have good topsoil in your backyard, by all means, use your topsoil. All you will have to do is add fertilizer. If you are not so lucky--and your backyard is sand or heavy red or yellow clay, you can mix up a batch of loam soil.
You can create your own loam soil by mixing these two ingredients together
- 2/3 Inorganic Topsoil (Little or no organic material added)
- 1/3 Pool Filter Sand
Mix together thoroughly with a little water. Your soil should clump when squeezed. If your soil is mixed properly, it will not muddy your pond water.
You can purchase inexpensive bags of inexpensive / poor Topsoil at Lowes or Home-Depot. Good soil clumps together as a ball in your hand with only a little moisture.
Don't buy brands like Scott's or Miracle-Gro, as they will contain too much organic matter that can foul your water. Buy an unbranded bag of topsoil instead.
You can purchase Pool Filter Sand at any store that sells pool supplies.
Loam soil is well suited for all aquatic plants (except oxygenators). Oxygenators rarely need to be planted, just anchored in the substrate or in a container filled with sand or 1/8 inch pea gravel.
Sand holds little water but does allow for aeration and drainage.
Some DO's and DON'TS regarding Aquatic Planting Soil
DO NOT use potting soils ( as they are too light and will float right out of the pot). Potting Soil has organic material that will rot and foul your water!
DO NOT add too much composted material (as it is too rich in organic matter and it will ferment underwater and destroy the ecology of your pond).
DO NOT use 100% calcined clay as there is no nutritional value in calcined clay.
DO NOT add rocks, stones or pebbles to the top of your planting container as this will inhibit the growth of your plants. Plants do not grow in rocks and stones in nature!
DO NOT purchase API Aquatic Planting Media or Microbe-lift Aquatic Planting Media as these products are NOT suitable for waterlilies, lotus or most other pond plants. They are suitable for submerged grasses ONLY!
