Notice

Colin Mills, compiler of the Hortus Camdenensis, died in late November 2012 after a short illness. As he always considered the Hortus his legacy, it is his family's intention to keep the site running in perpetuity. It will not, however, be updated in the near future.

Achimenes longiflora ‘Major’

See Achimenes longiflora DC. for a description of the type.  Major is a variety with metallic green leaves, lavender to pale purple flowers with a golden throat and yellow tube, longer than the type, to 7.5cm long.  [RHSD].  

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘From Mr. Veitch.  Flowers large, with long flattened tube, and the limb lying almost in the same plane, violet-blue, somewhat paler beneath the eye.  It is of a more decided blue than A. Belmontiensis, and is in every way a first class variety.’  [Proc. RHS p.458/1859].  The Gesneriad Register describes the flowers as enormous, to 7.5cm in diameter, light violet with darker purple above the throat and a pale blotch below.  In an advertisement in The Gardeners’ Chronicle, H. Lane & Sons, nurserymen of Great Berkhampstead described the flowers as ‘half as long again as the longiflora, and of a deeper blue, the foliage quite green, and very superior, the under surface of the leaf being without that rusty appearance of longiflora.’  [Gard. Chron. 1849].  GRA p.26.

History at Camden Park

Listed only as an addendum to the 1857 catalogue [A.13/1857].

Notes

Published Aug 26, 2009 - 04:43 PM | Last updated Aug 25, 2011 - 02:37 PM

Family Gesneriaceae
Category
Region of origin

Central America, but probably of garden origin

Synonyms
  • Achimenes longiflora DC. var. latifolia

 

Common Name

Achimenes, Hot water plant, Cupid’s bow

Name in the Camden Park Record

Achimenes longiflora major 

Confidence level high