Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Debate: When is a double a double?, 1 by Alistair

Alistair wrote:
Interesting Gary! I don't think there is really a satisfactory answer as there is evidently a continuum from single to slightly double to stuffed double to dropped skirted double (and triple, though I think the term "double" generally serves well enough for any with more than one corolla??), and many cvs vary where they are on the continuum from one flower to the next.

I am beginning to wonder if that variability isn't in part temperature dependent - a plant of 'Knightii' here produced shredded (and deformed) double flowers from buds initiated in the cold of winter, stuffed doubles in spring, dropped skirt doubles in summer and back to stuffed in autumn.

At least one a bit like yours has been registered: the Australian B. 'Tantra' ('Knightii' x un-named aurea). It has mostly single flowers but quite a lot with a bit of inner corolla, but never a proper double flower. It is a very nice cultivar as a whole plant (but the flowers are not always very pretty when you look right into them). I think it was described as "single, sometimes semi-double". [This is a pic of 'Tantra', but it doesn't show inside the flower].

Maybe yours could be described as "semi-double, occasionally double"???






This message was edited Mar 30, 2009 2:05 PM