Nymphaea Species, Blue Lotus of the Nile Lily

So, is it absolutely necessary to plant this in a pond-like enviornment? I love the idea of growing blue lotus but I live in a concrete j...Read Moreungle... is there some way I can still do this??

Thanks!

The seeds are exceedingly difficult. I bought a packet, grew them with a perfectly controlled temperature environment and sterilized soil...Read More and artificial UV lights. Out of a package of, say 50 (the size of grains of sand), two survived. Now once as adults is a different matter. The adult plants are easy as pie. The flowers are gracious, however, blue with yellow centers; the flowers really aren't that big, and frankly I seen a lot prettier flowers than these that can be purchased in garden shops anywhere of numerous species. Except the smell---ooooohhhh they smell GOOOOD! Somewhat like roses, but much much much better. I can understand in those ancient egyptian artworks, images of individuals carrying these flowers around constantly inhaling the heavenly scent. NO WONDER it was worshipped! I like to bend down and inhale my pond...very nice!

I love plants of ancient Egypt. It excites me to think ancient Pharohs and priests kept these plants. The flowers are not large, but quite eloquent. You don't need a pond but a five gallon container (with no holes) of good strong plastic. Fill with 3/4 good quality sterile POTTING soil (my favorite is Scotts), and the rest keep full of water...and plant...viola.
Very gracous blue flowers with yellow centers. Water daily-they, like any pond plant, do drink lots of water :-)

In a separate container made for ponds (of plastic) I have ancient Egyptian papyrus, which grow quite huge (KEEP THESE SEPARATE FROM LILLIES because the root system is quite deep and large--these are HUGE plants). This makes for quite an impressive setup. And to think Moses was kept hidden and safe with the papyrus plants :-)
And it was the PAPER used in Egypt, which also was penned the gospels (including the recently found Gospel of Judas!)..

They like full sun, and, of course, a pond environment. Once the flowers start coming...they just keep on truckin...and I can guarantee you will not be able to resist bending down and inhaling the absolutely HEAVENLY fragrances.

Plants are somewhat hard to find but it's available from special catalogs. This waterlily is very easy to start from seeds and should blo...Read Moreom the same year. Nymphaea caerulea is known as the Egyptian Blue Lotus, but it's really a waterlily. In wall paintings on Egyptian ruins you can see they really loved this flower. It's fragrant with a nice fruity scent. There are wall frescoes with Egyptians smelling the blossoms. It's even thought to be narcotic. They even infused their wine with the blossoms.