Struggling with Lotus — would appreciate advice

I want to be honest: I'm not getting great results with Lotus and I'm not entirely sure why. overrunning the pond surface in productive warm summers has been a recurring problem despite my attempts to address it. I've been focusing on positioning at the correct water depth for the species based on everything I've read.

essential habitat and breeding ground for pond wildlife is there in glimpses, which tells me the plant has potential in my conditions. I have it in a natural wildlife pond with naturalistic marginal planting which might not be ideal. foliage die-back and pond tidying in autumn showed some improvement. Two stars for now — not the plant's fault, but not a success yet. I'll update if things improve.