The Gold Medal Water Lily, a benchmark for golden yellow on water
Hybridized by Perry D. Slocum in the 1980s, Nymphaea Gold Medal quickly established itself as one of the most popular hardy yellow water lilies among nurserymen and landscapers. Its generous blooms, pointed petals with degraded golden yellow to pale cream hues, and balanced habit make it a classic for temperate garden ponds. This medium-sized water lily thrives in 20 to 60 cm of water and produces a succession of luminous flowers above clean green leaves every summer.
🌸 Origin and creation : Perry Slocum's signature
The Gold Medal is a creation of the American hybridizer Perry D. Slocum, considered one of the greatest modern Nymphaea breeders. Slocum dedicated his life to enriching the palette of hardy water lilies in the United States, by crossing botanical species and existing cultivars to create larger, more colorful, and longer-lasting blooms. The Gold Medal is one of its achievements: it combines an intense yellow color, a star-shaped form with pointed petals, and the essential hardiness to withstand European winters.
❄️ Hardy and perennial plant
Unlike tropical water lilies, Nymphaea Gold Medal is a fully hardy variety : its rhizome withstands frost without difficulty as long as it is submerged under a sufficient layer of water. The recommended depth of 20 to 60 cm ensures that the rootstock is never caught in ice, even during harsh winters. The plant enters dormancy each winter and spontaneously restarts in spring, without any special intervention.
No indoor overwintering is necessary for this variety. The plant gradually establishes its root system in the basket or directly in the bottom substrate, for a longevity of several years in a permanent pond.
☀️ Flowering and performance
The Gold Medal produces flowers 10 cm in diameter, with tapered, overlapping petals, whose color evolves from deep golden yellow at the center to a luminous cream yellow at the edge. Each flower lasts about three to five days, opening in the morning and closing in the late afternoon, and the plant continuously produces new buds from June to September depending on the climate. The central orange-yellow stamens attract bees and contribute to the biodiversity of the pond.
The floating foliage, composed of round leaves 12 to 15 cm, covers approximately 1 m² of water surface per plant, which helps limit the proliferation of filamentous algae by reducing direct illumination of the bottom. The recommended density is one plant per 14 L container.
🏞️ Recommended uses
Nymphaea Gold Medal is suitable for medium-sized ornamental garden ponds, natural swimming ponds in their filtration zone, as well as formal water features and pre-formed ponds in contemporary gardens. Its immersion depth of 20 to 60 cm makes it ideal for the shallow ponds typical of urban gardens. It is also suitable for staging a water feature in a Japanese garden or an inner courtyard pond, where its yellow blooms bring light amidst the green foliage. It works alone or in combination with other hardy water lilies of different colors to create a summer floral mosaic.
📊 Technical specifications
- Genus and type : Nymphaea, hardy hybrid
- Cultivar : Gold Medal
- Hybridizer : Perry D. Slocum (USA)
- Size category : medium
- Flower color : golden yellow at the heart, cream yellow at the periphery
- Flower diameter : 10 cm
- Petal shape : pointed, star-shaped, in superimposed layers
- Leaf diameter : 12 to 15 cm
- Coverage per plant : approximately 1 m² of water surface
- Planting depth : 20 to 60 cm
- Recommended container : 14 L
- Flowering period : June to September
- Hardiness : zone 4 to 11, tolerates European winters
- Exposure : full sun, 6 hours minimum per day
📘 Guide and practical advice
Installation : Place the rhizome in a perforated basket lined with burlap, filled with unamended clay soil (never potting soil). Cover the substrate with rolled gravel to prevent dispersion in the water and immerse the basket gradually, preferably at the beginning of the season between April and June.
Typical use : One plant per 14 L container is enough to cover 1 m² of surface. In larger ponds, space plants at least 1 meter apart to avoid foliage competition and maintain proper water circulation.
Mistakes to avoid : Never plant under more than 80 cm of water, do not use potting soil or overly rich substrate that promotes algae, and do not remove the rhizome from the water for winter, as dehydration will permanently damage it.
Maintenance : Remove faded flowers and yellowed leaves by hand to stimulate new bud growth. Add an aquatic fertilizer cone in spring to support flowering. Divide the rhizome every three to four years, ideally in April, to rejuvenate the clump.
