You're right, Jonna, do you recall where you got your lotus seeds?The American lotus is Nelumbo lutea, a big, lusty plant with fragrant yellow flowers. Pretty sure it is winter hardy quite a ways north. Here's the U. of Florida's page on it
http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/nod... Any that were bred from those would surely be fairly hardy and also go dormant in winter.
The one thing I am fairly sure of is they need lots of sun to really bloom well. Unless I keep mine in a tub on wheels and move it around during the spring/summer I can't give them enough sun. At around $25 a pop for the tubers, I can't afford to be planting new ones each year, either.
Paul, the wood around my little pond is, in fact, a boardwalk. It leads to the front door. The lizards are ceramic cheap-o's intended to scare away the fishing birds. They seem to have worked pretty well, but the raccoons are not fooled. I think I'd need a real, live gator to keep them from drinking and messing up my pond.
