Echo Park Lake's famed lotus beds may have failed to bloom this year, but not so the prominent patch at UCLA's Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Bel Air. Fluttering like pink petticoats in a breeze, the distinctive blossoms with giant green leaves rise nearly 5 feet from the pond that serves as the garden's focal point. Of great religious significance to Buddhists, the Nelumbo nucifera —commonly known as the Indian or Chinese lotus — boasts more flowers than usual this year and will bloom until mid-August, according to garden staff.

 

Meanwhile, water lilies, or Nymphaea, which were revered by the ancient Egyptians and famously celebrated by French Impressionist painter Claude Monet in some 250 canvases, are blooming much later than expected this year. The garden's particular variety, Gerardiana, is especially fragrant, according to Joseph Ross, Hannah Carter's lead gardener.

 

Aquatic plants in other local settings have not fared as well. Mysteriously, Echo Park Lake's lotuses failed to bloom for the first time in the 31-year history of the park's Lotus Festival, held July 12. Once called the largest lotus display in the country, the lake's beds have simply vanished, the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month.

 

UCLA's Hannah Carter Japanese Garden is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., by reservation only. For information, contact gardens@support.ucla.edu or call 310-794-0320.