KING OF ITHACA (Benz) 28" M.Dor(Crushed Cranberry Lace X Paint It Black) From the fortuitous cross of Crushed Cranberry Lace and Paint It Black comes the most beautifully ruffled violet purple so far. Very wide and endowed with extravagant ruffling frills and lace KING OF ITHACA stands alone in this class. True purples are not common, and fewer still having any real ruffling; but heavily ruffled purples with the form and substance found here are really non existent. This 5" gorgeous, fully saturated deep purple is a completeself…justpure saturated color enhanced by a vivid green throat and in periods of hot weather displays a fine black-purple filigree and a wire edge in white. When I saw the substance and ruffling on CRUSHED CRANBERRY LACE I quickly crossed it to my best self-colored purples. This was our most exciting purple crop ever, and thesibsfrom CRUSHED CRANBERRY LACE X PAINT IT BLACK came in every shade from burgundy to the most intense black purples, many with extreme ruffling, and excellent branching was the norm. KING OF ITHACA and its best siblings raise the bar in the deep purple class. KING OFITHACAisnot as large assibIMPERIOUS REX, but far heavier and far more ruffled. Blooms on are very heavy andsunfast, and look fresh and undamaged after a day in 90° sun. Toppicshows early morning bloom; bottompic2 blooms about 7 p.m.Great plant habit with deep blue-green dormant foliage, strong thickscapeswith 3-4 perfectly spaced lateral branches, a terminal cluster and a bud-count of 25. Fertile both ways and I am using KING OF ITHACA heavily and will continue to do so..........SOLD OUT