I had never grown a Lotus before, though we have certainly enjoyed using the root in our Asian cooking. However, in our last batch of tubers we bought, there was a joined pair that had a small shoot between them and for kicks I thought I would try growing one. Using a shallow 5" deep plastic pan that holds about a gallon of soil, I planted the tubers in a bit of soil to barely cover them, and kept it wet.When the sprout surfaced the soil I thought I just might have success and bought a small 20 gallon pond tub, and using bricks placed under the shallow pan, filled the tub full with water so that the soil surface of the small pan was about 4" below the surface of the water.When the sprout came up and leafed out I was delighted, but noticed that it wasn't as green as it should be (the plant definitely needed more nitrogen), so after reviewing Lotus fertilizers settled on the CrystalClear Thrive Aquatic Plant Fertilizer (10-14-8) based on customer reviews, and I'm so glad I did!Within a couple weeks of using the first tablet we had more shoots coming up from the pair of tubers and they leafed out into nice big and VERY green and beautiful healthy leaves, both floating on the surface or rising above it. Today I will be placing the second tablet into the soil, and although we have absolutely no idea what color of flower this plant may produce (since it was Lotus root tubers purchased at an Asian market, all I know is they were a product of Mexico), we're definitely excited to find out as the plant now has 11 large leaves, and it's only been about 5 weeks since we placed our first tab in the tub of soil.I'm definitely sold on the CrystalClear Thrive Aquatic Plant Fertilizer. I'm not new to gardening by a long stretch, but I *am* new to growing pond plants, having only admired them growing in botanical gardens or pond nurseries over the years (which is why seeing that nice pair a tubers with a tiny sprout starting between them piqued my interest). The product took a plant that was growing in an environment weak in nutrients, gave it what it was needing and turned it into a healthy plant with luscious green leaves that are strong and healthy. Now to just sit back and wait for a flower (or more) to bloom and surprise us with its beauty!