Commercially available

9 favorite votes.  

Registration name: Vanamali

Bred by M.S. Viraraghavan (India, 1979).
Introduced in India by KSG Sons/KSG's Roses in 1978 as 'Vanamali'.

Hybrid Tea.  

Mauve.  Flowers orchid-mauve.  Moderate fragrance.  35 to 40 petals.  Average diameter 6".  Very large, full (26-40 petals), exhibition, high-centered bloom form.  Blooms in flushes throughout the season.  Long, pointed buds.  

Tall, bushy.  Dark green, leathery foliage.  

USDA zone 6b through 9b (default).  Vigorous.  

So named as the flowers are the colour of Lord Krishna as depicted in the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma the well known painter and royal personage of the Travncore dynasty from Kerala. State in south India. The streamlined buds are of clear dark mauve and open slowly to large high centred flowers of orchid.