Description
‘King of the Netherlands’
2Y-YYO(a)
[Incomparabilis]
(Backhouse, W., pre-1869)
Although the Carparne drawings in the Lindley Library might appear inelegant at a first glance, time and again an invaluable characteristic or two can be gleaned from them. Thus Duncan found an illustration of the delightful and distinct flower we had referred to as HOWICK BEAUTY. For such an early hybrid, the flower is remarkably rounded. On opening, the perianth is sulphury mimosa-yellow, with a large, lightly pleated, broad funnel-shaped corona of soft amber, Chinese yellow and orange-buff shades, with an unevenly notched and broadly crenate rim tinged Spanish orange. As the flower matures, the perianth becomes pale sulphur, and the broadly elliptic to obovate outer perianth segments tend to recurve, whereas the inner segments incurve and become much narrower as the margins reflex most strongly either side of the midrib, lending a dishevelled look. The corona expands to a shallower wide bowl, and the orange shades fade to chrome-yellow at the lightly ragged rim, through strong lemon and gold hues to rich primrose-yellow near the distinctively dark eye zone.
