Cultivar

B. ‘Royalty’

Photos

2 photos

Identity

Genus: Begonia
Name: B. ‘Royalty’
Originator: Williams
Date of Origin: 1874
Female Parent: B. ‘Intermedia’
Male Parent: B. ‘Chambersii’
Publication Reference: FM; WBHC-WW
Article References: The Gardeners' chronicle, v. 5, 1876

Plant

Description: The Gardeners' chronicle, v. 5, (1876) B. Royalty: A garden hybrid of the bulbous section, of intermediate growth; of branching habit, producing an immense quantity of bright orange-scarlet flowers, 4 inches across. The flowers are of great substance, and retain their beauty for a long period. Received First-class Certificate, Floral Committee, Royal Horticultural Society, October 7, 1874. B. Royalty. This is one of the few acquisitions which we owe to the intercrossing of the tuberous Begonias, of which the introduction of B. boliviensis, B. Veitchii, and others was the starting point. The present variety was shown by Mr. Chambers at the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on October 7, 1874, and the stock has passed into the hands of Mr. Williams, by whom it is being distributed. It is of dwarf and free growth, and of branching habit, with green pale- ribbed leaves, and bears a profusion of very large orange-red flowers, which are as much as 4 inches across, the females nearly or quite as large as the males, and both of them of great substance, and lasting a considerable period in beauty. It was awarded a First-class Certificate, which it well deserved, when exhibited on the occasion above referred to. We are indebted to Mr. Williams for the illustration (fig. 136). The floral magazine; London, new ser. v. 3 (1874) http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/202204 Begonia ‘Royalty’ - Every reader of the Floral magazine will remember our figure of Messrs. Veitch's superb Begonia ‘Intermedia’, given by us on Plate 5 of the New Series. This hybrid plant (perhaps the finest Begonia either hybrid or species ever till then known is one of the parents of the plant we now figure, the other parent being Mr. Williams's B. ‘Chambersii’. Begonia ‘Intermedia’ was a hybrid between B. boliviensis and B. veitchii; and as both these plants have been figured in our former volumes, our readers are in a good position to understand the whole parentage of our plant. B. ‘Chambersii’ we have not figured, but it is again a garden hybrid between B. pearcei and B. ‘Sedeni’, retaining the markings of the first named parent, with larger leaves. B. ‘Chambersii’ has large flowers rosy-salmon inside and pink without, these flowers being very freely produced. A glance at our Plate will now show how completely Mr. Williams's grand new Begonia ‘Royalty’ partakes of the characters of both its parents, and how it is at the same time a great step in advance of both. Begonia ‘Royalty’ has very much the habit of B . Pearcei, and is in every respect as dwarf and free flowering, this dwarfness of habit, its free flowering properties, and the gigantic size of its individual flowers, render it, without doubt, the finest of all the hybrid Begonias ever offered to the public. The color of the blooms is intermediate in shade between the rosy-salmon of B. ‘Chambersii’ and the intense scarlet, carmine of B. ‘Intermedia’. B. ‘Royalty’ has been deservedly awarded a first-class certificate by the Royal Horticultural Society; and it only remains for us to add, that the entire stock of the plant is in the hands of Mr. B. S. Williams, of Upper Holloway.