Thanks for the pointer to the interesting blog, especially the old catalogues - very useful to see any early descriptions. I only had the name W.E. Gumbleton before so good to see a description - not that the descriptions really help one to differentiate them and as you say, not a huge amount has changed in 100 years. The number of spelling variations for some cultivars was so many that I stopped recording them all - finding the original spelling is always a challenge. K. thomsonii is a great species but very variable. The well-spaced flowers of your plant are typical of the one commonly found in cultivation, a triploid called 'Stern's Trip', however other clones are around. The one I grow supposedly came originally from the Aberdares in Kenya but I don't have the full origins: http://flickr.com/photos/63276845@N00/… I will check back on your blog to see which one's you think are the best. Chris On 03/09/2012 17:00, pbs-request@lists.ibiblio.org wrote: > What a nice?coincidence: I did a brief piece on Kniphofia on my blog on August 3. In that blog I posted an image of a page from the early twentieth century catalog of Bertrand Farr of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, USA. That page gives a list of kniphofias he was offering for sale just before the First World War. ?From that list one see one name to be added to Christopher Whitehouse's list: 'Wm. E. Gumbleton'. And an orthographic variant (misspelling) of one name which does appear correctly on the Whitehouse list can be seen on the Farr list: Farr lists Athropos, Whitehouse lists Atropos.? > You can see the Farr list here: > http://mcwort.blogspot.com/2012/08/…? > > > I'm trialing eighteen sorts this year, and from what I've seen so far not much has changed in a century.?