LOTUS at the NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN

These are some of the beautiful lotus plants at the Conservatory Courtyard Pools of the New York Botanical Garden which I visited a week ago. Unlike the leaves of water lilies which sit on the surface of the water, the leaves of the lotus plant rise up to as high as four feet above the water. There are tropical lotus and cool temperate types of lotuses. Most lotus that come from China are suited to the Victorian climate. In Eastern literature, the lotus is a plant that grows out of the slimy mud- the still, putrid water – to produce the most beautiful flower. “It’s compared with life; that whatever your life circumstances, it’s possible for the most pure and beautiful thing to rise.”