Nelumbo nucifera, known more readily as lotus, has long been revered for its large pink and white flowers.

It is domiciled in the Middle East, Asia, India, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, New Guinea and Australia.

This ancient plant is one of the first plants in the Gymnosperm.

It was growing in the northern Hemisphere in various low and watery regions around 135 million years ago.

Petrified seeds were discovered during oil exploration in China and the lotus has been cultivated there since the 12th century BC.

It is distributed throughout China, which boasts of over 100 different cultivars.

For the Chinese, the flower has held untold appreciation for poets, artists, scholars and the population as a whole for thousands of years.

This sacred perennial has been grown for centuries for religious and ornamental uses.

In India, where it is the national flower and known as the flower of purity, it is cultivated for its stylish, sweetly-perfumed flowers grown in ponds and tanks.

Throughout history, the lotus has featured in Buddhist and Hindu art, architecture and literature.

Even before the religions of the Indus Valley civilization, it held immense symbolic meaning.

The flowers were symbolic of immortality and resurrection, representing the perpetual cycles of reincarnation, for people observed that the monsoon rains would awaken the plants from the bottom of dried-up pools.

Buddhists believe that Buddha was born in the heart of a lotus flower.

The Hindus link the flower with the creation of the world and the Japanese hold it as a symbol of purity and beauty.

Another species, for there are just two species of lotus, Nelumbo lutea, was also a powerful symbol in religion and in daily life as a whole.

Irrespective of its early use, it was Buddhism, which principally caused the lotus symbol to become exploited.

Lotus medallions are renowned on Buddhist religious sites at Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh and Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh and date back to the second century AD.

With the spread of Buddhism, from India to Central Asia and China in the first few centuries AD, lotus flowers were embraced to represent Buddha.

They featured on scrolls, motifs, rosettes and iconography.

The leaves (60cm in diameter) of the lotus provided plates in ancient India and its roots and seeds remain a delicacy.

It became a part of the fabric of South Asia's culture and was unrelenting with the dawn of Islam in the 12th century AD.

Heavily rooted in Persian culture, the lotus flower was consequently a prevalent motif on Islamic textiles, carpets, screens, tiles and ceramics.

This light-loving plant grows best when it is not shaded in calm freshwater.

The flowers may last three or four days - some just a day.

Botanists are now aware that each flower has its own individual thermostat.

A solitary flower can produce and maintain a temperature of more than 27¡C, even when the air temperature drops to 10¡C.

The fruits' pod is conical in design with seeds held in holes within the pod.

Nucifera denotes "having hard fruit".

When the seeds ripen, they become loose and rattle within the pod.

The pod then bows downwards headed for the water, liberating the seeds.

The seeds are consumed unripe and raw, or ripe and cooked.

They are a well-liked ingredient in deserts such as "cheng teng".

The rhiomes also provide a food, which are boiled in soups, candied to provide a desert or pickled. The petioles and young roots are also eaten.

The plate-like leaves are used to wrap lotus rice and other foods.

The plant has substantial medicinal qualities.

For instance, in China the rhizomes or leaves are mixed with other herbs to remedy sunstroke, fever, dysentery, dizziness, vomiting of blood, diarrhoea and haemorrhoids.

The entire plant provides an antidote to mushroom poisoning.

While the embryonic seeds treat high fever, Chinese cholera, nervous disorders and insomnia.

The seeds are used to stop vomiting, ease indigestion and diarrhoea, or simply provide a tonic.

The pulverized petals are used to treat syphilis and in cosmetic lotions and creams.

The flower stalk mixed with other herbs is used to cure bleeding from the uterus.

The pods hold alkaloids that stop bleeding.

There are several methods used to trigger seed germination.

In late January, I used the blade of a hacksaw to cut into the hard seedcase, taking the utmost care not to damage the cotyledons.

Then I placed the seeds in jars containing domestic tap water, then covered the jar with cling film to keep them warm and kept them in the house (water temperature between 15-25¡C).

They germinated within a few days, presenting greenish embryonic leaves.

The water should be changed daily prior to germination and thereafter regularly prior to planting out.

I then waited for the roots to appear, which occurs after the embryonic leaves appear and buried the seed carefully in pond soil, (which is available from the garden nursery "Jannusan Exotics" off Budaiya road) in pots or planting baskets with a water depth of 10-20cm above soil level.

Over time, the plants were gradually lowered to a deeper depth, which can ultimately be as much as 1.5 metres, but is not at all necessary.

Some of my plants have just 15cm of water over their soil level.

I hope this will ignite in you the desire to grow your own lotus plants.

Meanwhile, one morning I espied the endearing predator, the "ladybird", in the garden.

This event has not occurred for the past four years.

Please do refrain from using insecticides.

A few evenings back, our front door was a living blanket of beautiful moths and the garden that day was afloat with the abundant number of butterflies.

There are a bountiful number of caterpillars in the garden.

Although they will eat the leaves of plants, new leaves will most certainly replace the nibbled ones.

So please don't kill these important creatures! They will, after their chrysalis stage, turn into a butterfly or moth.