Jan, I honestly believe that dividing lotus is a myth.

Since mine don't have free rein of a whole pond, I think they would need it
at some time, but I don't think I'll do it next year as one of them went 2
years and did great last year.

Water Gardening magazine had an excellent article on dividing them, so I
can see where I've gone wrong and will have better success next time. Good
thing this time around I was so generous with my spacing between cuts. Else
I couldn't have completely killed it. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~