Since we normally don't do well with lotuses, we have never started any from seed. Walter Pagels' excellent article linked below inspired us to try, since we wanted to illustrate the process for others. The seeds we started were "tropical lotus", varieties which seem to have adapted to warmer climates. This probably accounts for the speed from sprout to bloom, unusually fast in very warm climates. We should mention that the flower picture above was of our only bloom of the season, though hurricanes may have thwarted additional flowering.