Lotus Seed Harvesting and Germinating

We have a lotus plant in our pond and have had 2 flowers open (they are beautiful) The pods are drying and we want to try and plant the seeds in the pods and start new Lotus plants. Anyway - do we cut the stem down to the base or do we just cut off the pod? And then what kind of dirt do we plant the pod seeds in to get new Lotus growing?
Thank you

Doug says that as soon as the seed pods dry, you can harvest the seed and then follow the directions here for germinating and getting them to start growing new plants.

Good luck - let us know how it works out