Fertilizer and lots of it. I found doubling the pond tabs I was using made a huge difference in the number of blooms. I think in FLorida where the water gets so hot the plants need more food to stay in good shape. I am not sure if it was the temperature of the water or the fact that we had to constantly top off the container due to evaporation and that diluted the fertilizer??? I had my lotus in a pot that was maybe 15 - 20 gallons and I used two pond tabs every other week. We went from just a few flowers to constant flowering last summer.
In December we left FL and moved to the NC mountains. I left the lotus with a friend and just ordered a mini lotus for our deck here. This is true downsizing.
