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Roscoea cautleyoides 'Kew Beauty' is a really excellent selection of the species (if it is understood that all of the forms are good plants). It has a broad labellum and
an even yellow colour. The lateral petals are comparatively broad and stick out almost horizontally, giving the flower an almost triangular outline to the flower. Jill Cowley writes: "Another variant of the yellow form is a plant that was informally called Roscoea cautleyoides var. grandiflora by Mr George Preston, the Assistant Curator in charge of the Rock Garden at Kew, where the plant appeared among self-sown seedlings around clumps of R. cautleyoides. He wrote in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society (Vol.74 (5):206 (1950)) that it was "an extremely good form...with much larger flowers with the same roibust habit of the type...". Mr POreston did not formally describe this variant, and it has since been named 'Kew Beauty' by Blooms of Bressingham whi distribute plants. There do not seem to be any records of such a form in the wild. It appears to have been widely distributed. Kew exhibited it at an RHS show in 1957 and it was given an Award of Merit. It is robust and vigorous, and flowers a little later than the typical form. It has much leafier stems, large wide leaves, larger flowers on a shorter peduncle and grows to about 40cm, according to Alam Bloom of Bressingham. There is still a large stand on the Rock Garden at Kew. According to a report by an unknown author in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1958 (Vol.83 (3)), it comes "more or less true from seed, the flowers are a pale shade of Chartreuse Green (H.C.C. 663/2 to 663/3)...". " Gary Dunlop says: "A much more robust plant which originated at Kew, and is deemed to be a hybrid with R. humeana, has been given several names in cultivation such as R. c. 'Grandiflora' under which name it gained an AM in 1957 but it is now known as R. c. 'Kew Beauty'." Given an Award of Garden Merit by the RHS in 2011 after a trial, Richard Wilford writes: "A vigorous plant which has lovely flowers. A very popular cultivar. Originally though to be R. cautleyoides, it is now thought that it is R. cautleyoides x R. humeana hybrid." In the garden it has grown vigorously and remained reasonably distinctive. My plants set seed freeely which makes me a little doubtful of the 'hybrid' theory though I am keeping an open mind. |
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| 13th June 2005 | ||
