THE WATER GARDEN 141 



When the little plants are large enough to handle 

 they should be pricked out into inch pots and plunged 

 in a dish of water and grown on until June, when 

 they may be planted out in shallow water in the pool. 

 They will bloom the first year, but the blooms will be 

 small. The second year they will have attained size 

 and blossoms ten to twelve inches will be produced. 



The various lotus are easily grown from seed, in 

 much the same way, but as the seeds of the lotus are 

 large and very hard they must be filed or sandpapered 

 until a white spot shows on the side of the shell; 

 treated in this way and placed in a warm hotbed 

 nearly every seed will produce a plant. Seeds of 

 most of the best varieties of lotus can be obtained of 

 water lily specialists, and as the seed can be purchased 

 at from fifteen to twenty-five cents a packet, and the 

 growing plants cost from three to six dollars each, it 

 is quite worth one's while to experiment with the seed. 



It is not best to grow the Nymphseas and lotus in 

 the same pool. For one thing the lotus require a more 

 shallow water than the Nymphseas, not more than six 

 inches being desirable, while the Nymphseas require 

 twelve for best results. Again the root growth of the 

 Nymphseas is entirely distinct from the lotus, being 

 club formed and not extending far from the original 

 point of plantiug. For best results all small plant 

 buds should be removed from these main roots each 

 spring and the strength of the root given to the pro- 



