When the Floral Trials Sub-Committee met on Tuesday we spent some time looking at the Kniphofia trial which is setting the trials field on fire with a blaze of yellows, oranges and reds. http://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/documents/Kniphofia2007Index.pdf
As well as selecting the best plants for gardeners through the Award of Garden Merit, the RHS trials also raise and aim to solve nomenclatural and identity queries. For example this week it was a case of spot the difference between three of the Kniphofia trial entries.
Entered as:
31. Kniphofia ‘Bee's Sunset'
73. Kniphofia ‘Coral Sceptre' (in this case only the back plant of 3 was in flower.
91. Kniphofia ‘Shining Sceptre'
These three entries all looked to be very similar if not the same, a floriferous show of vivid orange blooms, held on bronze coloured stems, some with a curve to them, held above fairly average foliage.
Committee member Bob Brown of Cotswold Garden Flowers http://www.cgf.net/ recalled there being some confusion in the past with ‘Bee's Sunset' being in the trade incorrectly as ‘Shining Sceptre' and ‘Coral Sceptre'. Fellow Committee member Chris Sanders, Plantsman and also a member of the Woody Plant Committee said that the plants labelled as ‘Bee's Sunset' in the trial were not as he remembered the cultivar. This issue has now been flagged and will continue to be discussed by the Floral Trials Sub-Committee and the Keeper of the Herbarium, Dr Christopher Whitehouse, a South African Plant Specialist, who is the Botanist for this trial. The aim is to conclude such queries when the final report and bulletin are published following the trial.