x Amarcrinum memoria-corsii 'Fred Howard'
Archive entry 17.09.23
7th October 2017
A bigeneric hybrid between Amaryllis belladonna and Crinum moorei inheriting the deep pink flowers of the former
and the irresistible attractiveness to mealy bugs of the latter.
Raised by Fred Howard in Los Angeles. Howard was the son of an English physician who moved to Los Angeles. In 1890 he opened a nursery selling a range of plants but is remembered mostly
for his roses. The majority of his own introductions have now vanished but 'Los Angeles' and 'The Doctor' are still available.
The hybrid came to attention in the UK when it flowered at Kew "in a warm south border in front of one of the plant houses",
the details published in a section on "Plants New or Noteworthy" in the Gardeners Chronicle for 1925 (Vol.78 p.411). Coutts published a description of the plant under the name
x Amarcrinum Howardii Coutts in that article, presumably without realising that the hybrid had already been described four years earlier under the name x Crinadonna memoria-corsii
Ragioneri (Gardeners Chronicle, series 3, vol 69 p.32. 1921).
The generic name x Crinadonna falls foul of the technical requirements for the formation of the names of hybrid genera so in 1975 H. E. Moore Jr published a new combination in Baileya
to correct the situation. The genus x Amarcrinum was retained, and the hybrid became x Amarcrinum memoria-corsii (Baileya vol.19 p.163. 1975).
So far so good, however a number of other seedlings of the hybrid have since been named. Howards original seedling has long been referred to as 'Howardii' however latinised cultivar names are frowned on
and it should (probably) now be referred to as x Amarcrinum memoria-corsii 'Fred Howard' (there is some scope for the argument that 'Howardii' can be retained as a cultivar name published
in the Gardeners Chronicle in 1925).