In November 1972 I collected seeds from a strong
growing form of H. coccineum (Schilling 1184) from the 2,280 m high
Nagarot ridge (7,500 ft) on the eastern rim of the Kathmandu valley.
Plants raised from this 'blind collection' subsequently flowered out of
doors at Wakehurst Place and received an Award of Merit from the RHS
Committee B on 26 September, 1978, subject to the submission of a clonal
name. The bold spikes bear flowers of Orange Group 24A and the much
exerted styles are Orange-red Group 34B. The clone has been recorded
as 'Tara' to honour my daughter, her name being Nepalese for 'star'.
It might be of interest and some amusement to record here that Tara is
also the Hindu goddess of Mercy, responsible for the special protection of
those travelling over rocks or water!
Hedychium coccineum 'Tara'
has subsequently proved to be an unexpectedly hardy plant having survived
out of doors quite unscathed the extremely severe winter of 1981/82.
Recent information confirms that stocks at Windsor Great Park, the RHS
Garden at Wisley, as well as those in gardens sited in the colder counties
of east Kent and Norfolk, have suffered no damage from what was
unquestionably the hardest winter for several decades.