For those of you that try the growing the Nelumbo lutea from seed, I'd like to offer a few comments / observations / suggestions. I live to the north of Cincinnati, Ohio on the Zone 5 / Zone 6 border. I planted the seed in spring (I think in April) and they germinated quite readily sown in my pond in submerged pots. A thin layer of gravel on top of the soil helped to keep the water clear. The seed has a thick protective shell, so to accelerate the germination I prepared them by using a metal file to scrape away a few millimeters deep. You'll know when you get there because the new layer is a much lighter color. A comparable analogy is probably like a peanut M&M candy. The hard shell is much thicker on the Nelumbo seed. You want to file that down till you expose the "chocolate layer". If you get to the "peanut", then you've gone too far and probably killed the seed. The seeds also want to float... so the gravel on top of the pots helps to keep them from "escaping." Just for fun I tried growing some in my tropical fish aquarium. The seeds all germinated but died very quickly (less than 1 week). I strongly suspect that cold water in an outdoor pond is essential to success. The 68 degree F temps in my fish tank were probably too warm. My plants are thriving 4 years later in my pond. They are aggressive!! They send out runners or stolons, trying to establish new plants all around the pond. They did not bloom the first two years, but have bloomed reliably the last two years. This plant should be fully hardy up to Zone 4 or Zone 3. It will probably struggle in extremely warm (tropical) climates. I took pictures of the seedlings. At first I mistook the young leaves as debris floating on the surface of the pond. I almost killed them trying to fish them out! If anyone would like to see the photos I can send them by email. I also have photos of the flowers themselves, which are HUGE and GORGEOUS. For additional information and/or photos I recommend the following sites: http://el.erdc.usace.army.mil/aqua/apis/… http://www.holoweb.com/cannon/american2.htm http://www.floridata.com/ref/N/nelu_lut.cfm http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/nelupic.html http://ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/… Wow, this message turned out much longer than I expected. :-) Have fun! Dennis in Cincinnati