Nelumbo nucifera
ONE OF OUR FAVORITES!
Flower Color: Pink
Plant Height: Tall, 48” and taller
Flower Type: Multi-petal, more than 50 petals
Pot Size: 20” and wider, 12”-18” deep
Happy Children is a tall lotus with a wonderfully cheerful personality. Its large, full blooms open into layers of creamy white petals delicately touched with the softest blush of pink, creating an almost glowing effect in the garden.
The flowers have a beautifully rounded, double form, with petal after petal unfolding around a warm golden-yellow center. The gentle pink blush is more noticeable on the first day flower but changes to a faint blush along the outer petals as the flower ages, adding just enough color to keep this lovely lotus from being simply white—it has a soft, playful sweetness that perfectly suits its name.
There is something especially charming about seeing several Happy Children blooms rising above their green leaves. They look like little bouquets of sunshine floating among the foliage, with each flower slightly different as it opens and matures.
Tall, graceful, sweetly colored, and full of cheerful charm, Happy Children is a lotus that seems to smile every time it blooms.
HOW TO FERTILIZE LOTUS
For conventional fertilizer (tablets or loose prills) which releases quickly when water is added:
Wait until the lotus plant has several floating leaves or begins to put up aerial leaves before adding fertilizer.
Choose a good fertilizer such as Waterlily World Tablets, Pondtabbs or Landon’s Aquatic Fertilizer and follow the instructions carefully. The amount of fertilizer to use is usually based on the size of the pot and the amount of soil in the pot. For example, most of the small tablets are added at a ratio of 1-2 tablets per gallon of soil in the pot. Once the lotus has started to grow vigorously tablets can be added every 2-3 weeks. Stop fertilizing in late summer to allow the lotus to use up all the fertilizer in the pot before going dormant. This encourages the lotus to form better rhizomes.
For SLOW-RELEASE FERTILIZER like Nutricote 14-4-14, 100 day fertilizer:
*follow amount directions on package. Place fertilizer around the bottom of the pot then add soil. Plant rhizome in the soil at the top of soil layer and let it grow down to find fertilizer. We use slow-release fertilizer but begin adding extra Pondtabbs after 3 months when growth gets vigorous and we continue adding extra fertilizer until late summer.
Do NOT use 360 day fertilizer because it will release fertilizer for too long and the lotus will not form as many rhizomes when it goes dormant.