At the time of harvest the two sepals are already uniformly black, while the two smallest petals are usually completely or partially black. The next, relatively small leaf-like organs are blackening already during the first day of vase life. In commercial practice about 4–7 lowermost leaves are removed prior to sales. In our experiments with lotus buds we removed the first 6 leaf-like organs, and determined the time to 50% blackening in the leaf-like organs that were then visible.
Blackening in cut lotus buds often starts at the tips of the green outer petals, but can also initially be found at the lateral petal edges. When placed in vase water for one or two days, almost all the visible green petals have started to blacken. Apart from the dark black spots on the petal surface, the remaining of the petals turns grey. The length of vase life was defined as the time until 50% of the surface of the buds is black or grey.