Nelumbo Golden Apple - Sacred lotus

Nelumbo nucifera ‘Golden Apple’ is a yellow Indian lotus of good size, floriferous, well-suited to ornamental ponds and large aquatic containers. This variety produces large, very double flowers of a soft yellow, held above characteristic emergent foliage in summer. Less bulky than a very large cultivar, but too vigorous for a simple bowl, it finds its place in a sunny water feature or in a large watertight container on a terrace.

The sacred lotus is a rhizomatous aquatic perennial plant in the Nelumbonaceae family. Nelumbo nucifera, the wild species, is native to a vast area ranging from Ukraine and northern Iran to tropical Asia and northern Australia. It is easily distinguished from water lilies: in the lotus, the peltate leaves and flowers stand well above the water, while water lilies most often spread their foliage on the surface. The almost circular leaf has a waxy surface on which water beads and rolls without spreading.

'Golden Apple’ is distributed under its English name, but the specialist trade associates it with the Chinese name Jin Pingguo, sometimes transcribed as Jin Pinggo; it is also found under the commercial variant 'Gold Apple'. This cultivar is classified between medium and large lotuses: it reaches 90 cm high and more and has ample vegetation. It is presented in horticultural literature as originating from ‘Jin Taiyang’. However, a study based on SSR markers links it more closely to Asian lotuses than to Sino-American hybrids.
The plant develops long, robust petioles bearing large circular leaves. Flowering spreads from July to September. The very double flowers have more than 50 petals and measure 13 to 18 cm in diameter. Their colour ranges from buttery yellow to very pale yellow; the heart is washed with green or has a few green petaloids. After flowering, the fruit-bearing heads in the shape of a watering can rose develop. They are decorative and can be used in dried cut flower arrangements.

Given its development, ‘Golden Apple’ is suited to medium to large ponds, or a large watertight pot at least 50 cm in diameter. Plant in heavy soil, clayey or silty, never in light compost, with the rhizome almost level with the substrate surface so as not to damage the young shoots. Once growth has started, keep it under 25 to 35 cm of water. Full sun is essential for good flowering.

This lotus will become the main subject of a water feature, where its yellow flower brightens displays dominated by pinks, reds or whites. Its flowers are superb in cut flower arrangements, mixed with arums or white lisianthus such as F1 Cessna Green III. Like other lotuses, it partially shades the water and helps provide shelter for small aquatic wildlife. In winter, the rhizome can remain in place if there is no risk of it being frozen in ice; in a pot exposed to the cold, it is preferable to overwinter it frost-free.