Description
‘Vesuvius’
2W-O
[Incomparabilis 2b]
(Lawrenson, Mrs A.L., pre-1901)
With Chinese-lantern buds, perianth segments which become propellor-shaped, twisted and spidery, and a cheerful orange cup, this is a Jolly Roger of a daffodil. The slender elliptic, spreading perianth segments remain milk-white and more or less perpendicular to the corona, but the margins become strongly recurved in the basal half, and reflexed or incurving towards the acute, mucronate tip. The corona is a chunky, regularly flanged funnel with a scalloped rim; each lobule minutely crenulate. On opening, the cup is three-quarters’ persimmon-orange with an aureolin eye, but as the cup expands and the rim becomes lightly ruffled, the fiery shading softens to orpiment-orange seeping down the ridges and mimosa-yellow suffusing the furrows.
