last year i decided to try my hand at growing lotus. i live in growing zone 9a so its nice and warm and lotus love the sun. i ordered several packages of seeds both nucefieria and lutea and proceeded to grow them. i had about 17 beautiful plants growing in buckets. i decided to take two of those plants and place them in my garden bog pond. the plants in the pond quickly surpased the growth of the plants in the buckets! this is a very small garden pond and i was shocked. when winter came i left the two in the pond and the others in the buckets because we rarely have any freeze. if we do its only for a day or two. and just for a few hours. nothing ever freezes solid. well, when this spring came i was delighted to see the lotus in the pond growing again! but the ones in the buckets had no sign of life.i gave them a bit then decided to take a look at the tubbers to see the condition. they were all dead! i was horrified! this year i built a bog pond dedicated to lotus only and have new baby lotus growing now. my older lotus has a whole preformed pond dedicated just to her! i suppose il never know what happened but i am convinced lotus do much better in pond bogs then pots or buckets! so this is the way im growing mine from now on! a lotus pond bog is fun and easy to make and very rewarding! so out with the pots and start a bog! you will be amazed at the difference in your lotus! it will be twice the size and reach its potential faster! for me, this is the way to go!