Cool waterlily picture

I just thought this was a cool picture. This is Nymphaea 'Albert Greenberg'. It was probably my camera, but the colors came out really nifty!

Our lotus are starting to bloom!

Here at the Fish Shack, our spring lotus tubers are starting to send up flower buds. So exciting! We usually get our tubers in the very early spring. Whatever doesn't sell by May 1st, gets planted out here at the shop. Well... the ones we've planted out here at the shop are starting to send out buds and some have even flowered!

Wakins! A type of pond comet

We *rarely* get wakin goldfish in. RARELY. Maybe 1-2 times per YEAR. But they are soooo cool when they're here. A wakin has a regular, long comet goldfish body, but has a short, fancy double-tail like a ryukin or lionhead. Check 'em out:

Nymphaea immutabilis babies

We were graced with 6 immutabilis bulbs a while back. We planted them all out and 3 actually did something. Here's a picture of our young immutabilis throwing out their first blooms:

Oddball waterlily at The Fish Shack

The other day, we had one of our waterlilies go crazy at the shop. It's Nymphaea 'Ostara'. Ostara's tend to go a little nutty and I'm not sure what causes it. Maybe it's the heat here in Kahului, maybe something in it's "genetic code" causes it to go crazy? We're not sure, but whatever it is, it makes for interesting conversation.

The leaves grow into a funny shape. But the oddest thing is that the flowers come out "conjoined"! I wonder if "twinning" in plants is a common thing??

Lotus on Maui

Lotus have to grow LOTS of roots before the grow vegetation. That's why we have found it very important to plant the lotus tubers directly in dirt at the bottom of the container and never in a standard pot. All the times we've planted the tubers in pots, they grow for about 1 month and then become pot-bound and DIE.

While your lotus are growing, you may see some brown leaves. That does NOT mean it is dying. Just let those leaves go and soon the roots will be pushing up new foliage.

Maui Water Lily Gardeners

Things are really growing at full-speed now here at the Fish Shack! The water lilies, the lotus and yes, of course... the algae. Thsi is when all "water gardeners" actually get to garden! Just like weeding, the timely removal of detritus from your pond helps keep the hair/string algae away. Also, a nice acidifier (correctly used) can be a summer-time friend.