Nelumbo nucifera: 5 white lotus seeds
The lotus is a perennial water plant that grows naturally from India to East Asia and Australia. Its rhizome lies in the mud at the bottom while the leaf and flower stalks push straight up through the water. As a result the round leaves and the flowers stand above the surface instead of floating on it. This is the white-flowering form: broad, tapering white petals around a yellow heart that holds the characteristic flat seed pod. The flower opens in the morning and closes again later in the day, repeating that for a few days. White and pink are colour forms of one and the same species, so they do not differ in structure or in care.
In Hinduism and Buddhism it is the white lotus in particular that stands for purity and for an untainted mind, and in imagery it is usually given eight petals. The seeds are remarkable in their own right. They sit in a woody coat that keeps them viable for an extraordinarily long time: seeds more than a thousand years old, recovered from old deposits, have been brought to germination. That same hard coat is why lotus seed will not sprout by itself, so the plant needs a hand from you.
Germinating and growing on the seeds
- File or sand the domed side of the seed open until you see the white interior, going no deeper than you need to.
- Put the seeds in a glass of clean water at roughly 25 to 29 degrees, warm and bright, and refresh the water daily until a green shoot appears.
- Pot the seedling as soon as the first leaf unfolds: into a pot at least 30 cm across with holes in the base and the sides, filled with heavy clay or garden soil and a little bone meal, since the plant wants plenty of nutrients but little nitrogen. Set the seed about 3 cm deep.
- Cover the soil with some 3 cm of fine gravel, leaving an opening for the shoot to come through.
- Start with a few centimetres of water above the pot and raise that gradually to around 40 to 60 cm as the plant grows.
- Place the pot in full sun, in calm water and as sheltered from wind as you can manage.
Spring is the best moment to start, when the water warms up; in milder climates growers also begin in autumn or early winter. Lotuses raised from seed sometimes flower in their first season, but more often in the second. These seeds are meant for cultivation and study, not for consumption; store them dry and out of reach of children.
More exotic seeds at Avalon
Avalon Magic Plants also stocks Nelumbo nucifera in its pink form, along with Hyoscyamus niger (henbane), Mandragora officinarum (mandrake), Papaver rhoeas (red poppy), Salvia apiana (white sage) and Lactuca virosa (wild lettuce), among others. Every order leaves our warehouse discreetly packed.
