x Ruthyrospolia 'Phyllis van Heerden.'

I posted a message a while ago about this bi-generic hybrid (a member
of the Acanthaceae) between Ruthya ovata and Ruspolia
hypercraterfolia, complaining that it wasn't doing its stuff and
producing the spikes of pink flowers the friend who gave it to me said
it would. 

Moral: You should always write and complain about your plants' failure
to perform. They listen! 

It's now smothered in flowers and is very impressive. 'Spikes of pink
flowers' doesn't really give a true impression. They are spikes and
they are pink but that isn't the end of the story. Since the
individual flowers are sizeable (an inch to an inch and a half across)
and virtually flat, and since they're well-spaced along the spike, the
effect isn't spikey. And since each five-petalled flower (two above,
three below) is not merely prettily lipstick pink but a deeply smokily
reddish pink, with even deeper clusters of almost black-red spots in
the vestigial 'throat,' and since each flower has a prominent stamen
cluster as well.... Now imagine those terminal 'spikes,' each of a
dozen or more flowers, at the end of each 'casual but smart,'
elegantly arching 3ft stem. It looks even more charming than I HOPE
I've made it sound. 

I suppose it has to be a conservatory shrub for the UK (though, Dave,
if you're listening, a cutting is yours if you'd like to give it a try
in the tropics of Torquay) - but surely it ought to be a useful
addition to many Californian gardens, supposing, since no one
suggested ways of making it flower when I asked about it earlier, that
it isn't (much? if at all?) grown in them already.
Tim Longville
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