Donating Plants for the Sale

This year, we are accepting donations of all named Waterlilies and Lotus as you are dividing them. These plants need to be BARE ROOT and completely cleaned of all soil.

LOTUS

Lotus tubers should be divided and the variety name written on a piece of vinyl tape tied around the tuber. You should also list the size of the Lotus tuber as Small, Medium, or Large. The guidelines for this designation is Large tubers will definitely bloom this year, Medium tubers MAY bloom this year, given good fertilizer and growing conditions, and Small tubers just don’t have enough storage to produce blooms this year. Your lotus tubers can be divided now, and stored covered in plain water in a shallow container. You may weigh the tubers down by either nestling them in clean sand (no salt) or place an object on top of the tubers to weigh them down. They can be placed in a cool area (outside even, as long as we don’t get any more frost nights) until May 31st when you can bring them to Minnetonka in preparation for the sale. You can transport your tubers dry, as we will have tubs for storing them once you get to my house. As always, please be very gentle with growing tips as you transport your tubers.

WATERLILIES

Waterlilies can also be divided now, if you divide before May 22nd, you will need to have an alternative storage method than the plastic baggie. Clean waterlily tubers, can also have a vinyl tape with the name on them tied around the tuber. In a 5 gallon bucket, you can fill the bottom with about 4 inches of sand. Nestle the tuber (you can do about 4 tubers per bucket) in the sand and fill to the top with water, and set them outside in the sun. The tubers can be stored this way for several weeks until you package them up in gallon sized ziplock baggies for the sale. Write with a sharpie on the outside of the baggie the variety name of the waterlily along with its size. Again, small, medium or large. The size designation is a bit arbitrary, but think that the Large size would have multiple growing eyes on a fairly thick tuber and plenty of roots. Small size would have maybe 1-2 growing eyes on a very small piece of tuber and a few roots. Medium is somewhere in between, perhaps 2-4 small growing eyes on a 1-3” length of tuber and a decent number of roots.

AS SOON AS YOU KNOW

If you have any waterlilies or lotus to donate, you MUST let Marla Davenport know by May 10th (Mother’s Day) ([email protected] or 651-777-3634 and leave a message) so we can put them on our shopping list for sale, but we will not accept these physical donations until May 31st or June 1st.

HARDY PLANTS

Other hardy plants will be donated on a pull system, meaning we will call members who have these items and ask them to pot up ONLY what has already been ordered. If you have any hardy plants that are currently on our order form, please let Mark Schreier know at 612-803-7663 so we can call you when we need to fill orders.

TROPICAL PLANTS

We will NOT accept any tropical plants from members for this sale.