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Hardy lotus grows best in USDA zones 6 to 10, where summers stay hot, and it survives in zones 4 to 10 as long as the tuber never freezes solid. Both sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) and the native American lotus (Nelumbo lutea) fit that range. Winter cold decides whether your lotus lives. Summer heat decides … Read more >>
Strawberries are the best fruit to plant in a square foot garden for most home gardeners, because four plants fit in a single 1-foot square and they come back for 3 to 4 years. After strawberries, my top picks are cherry tomatoes and ground cherries at one per square, plus small melons and icebox watermelons … Read more >>
Lemongrass smells great, and that citrusy scent does bother mosquitoes. A living lemongrass plant does very little to keep mosquitoes off you; crushed leaves and lemongrass oil repel them briefly, and an EPA-registered repellent with DEET, picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus protects you for hours longer. So if you’re asking whether lemongrass repels mosquitoes, … Read more >>
Yes, lotus plants need full sun: at least 6 hours of direct sunlight a day, and 8 or more hours if you want the most flowers. I’d only give a lotus afternoon shade in hot desert areas like the Southwest, where the strong sun can scorch leaves and overheat a small container. A lotus in … Read more >>
Most lotus plants grow happily in plain fresh water, as long as you keep it in a sensible range. The best water quality for lotus is warm, calm, fresh water with a pH between about 6.5 and 7.5, hardness well under 1,000 ppm, no lingering chlorine, and at least 2 inches of water covering the … Read more >>
The best lotus fertilizer for a home water garden is a slow-release aquatic fertilizer tablet pushed deep into the pot’s soil, starting once standing leaves rise above the water and repeating every three to four weeks until late August. I recommend tablets made for water lilies and lotus because they feed the roots directly and … Read more >>
If you want one lotus for a backyard water garden, I’d grow a compact sacred lotus cultivar in a container. It comes in far more sizes and colors, and the dwarf types fit a patio tub. If your pond drains into a creek or lake, or you live where sacred lotus is listed as invasive, … Read more >>
For most small ponds, I’d pick a dwarf lotus like ‘Momo Botan’, because it stays around 1 to 2 feet tall, blooms heavily with double pink flowers, and grows well in a 16 to 20 inch pot. If your space is a half-barrel, a compact type such as ‘Chawan Basu’ or ‘Baby Doll’ in a … Read more >>
Lotus can get through a cold US winter just fine, as long as the tubers in the mud stay unfrozen and wet from fall until spring. In zones 3 to 7, I’d either sink the pot below the ice in a pond that never freezes solid or move it, still full of water, into a … Read more >>
Yes, you can put your ZZ plant outside for the summer, and it often grows faster out there than it does on a shelf indoors. You can move a ZZ plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) outdoors once nights stay above 55°F, as long as it sits in shade or filtered light and comes back inside before nights … Read more >>