This was my first bloom from my lotus, I love this plant in my water garden. The lilypad like greenery grew up out of the water about 2-4 feet and then the bloom came up reaching about 9ft tall from the bottom of the pond outward. It developed for about 10 days before opening, thank goodness it didn't rain for a week so I got to see the entire bloom process and took about 80 pictures, yes I'm a shutterbug at heart.