Description
‘Phyllis’ (Engleheart)
2W-YWW
[Leedsii 4b]
(G.H. Engleheart, pre-1901)
How we’ve longed to put a name to this uniquely coloured favourite, a Leedsii collected in the Tamar Valley in 2001. And there she was, with long perianth segments and prettily pleated, long, funnel-shaped corona, in a full-page photo in the 1915 Lissadell catalogue! Although the soft-white elliptic-obovate perianth segments soon become more starry and spidery as the margins incurve with age, the tightly ruffled rim of the gradually flaring, regularly and closely pleated corona neither expands much nor burns. However, the remarkable colouring becomes more pronounced as the upper part of the cup passes from soft Empire yellow to parchment and the aureolin base intensifies. In a vase, the colouring retreats further. These faintly sweetly-scented flowers are borne on smooth, slender stems, slightly shorter than average, well above the green, not glaucous, leaves.
