Alan Silver wrote:

1) Will 15 year-old seeds be any good? I've looked at quite a few sites
about growing these plants and it seems that they will last a long time,
but I haven't seen any real numbers. This isn't such a huge question as
I can simply try them and see if anything happens. If not, I've only
lost a bit of water ;-)

Millenia? LOL. 15 years isn't enough for them to even be considered
suspect!

g So I see from the other posts!!

2) More to the point, I live in the sun-drenched tropics of North West
England (ahem).

Lovely place that. Lived a few years in Whitehaven. I don't remember there
being any sun...

We're not quite as far north or west as Whitehaven, so we get a little
more sun ... but not much !!

Most of the sites I've seen explaining how to grow lotus
seem to be from people living in warm climates. It's very cold and wet
here at the moment, and I don't have a pond anyway!! Can these plants be
grown successfully indoors, and if so, do I need anything special for
them? One site I saw said they need long periods of intense light, which
doesn't sound like England in the winter!! Even in the summer we don't
get intense sunlight, in fact we count ourselves lucky if we get *any*
sunlight!!

They definitely won't grow in England in the winter. They're not tropicals,
though, and they grew in _my_ climate in Ontario, Canada - outside year
round - so you can definitely raise them. Indoors? Probably not. You
need at least a half-barrel outside.

Hmm, could be a problem there. We don't really have anywhere to put them
inside in the winter. Apart from the basic lack of space, they would get
bashed or eaten by the children!!

I might try starting one off indoors, taking it out over the summer (if
we get one) and seeing what happens by next winter. If I have anything
worth saving, I'll think again.

Thanks

--
Alan Silver
(anything added below this line is nothing to do with me)