THIS week tales of beauty and a beast of a beauty hit my inbox. Arthur Howett, from Seaview, sent me a photograph of his beautiful display of cymbidium orchids (main image above). Days later Maurice Preece, from Havenstreet, pinged me a photo of his King Protea, one of the most impressive national flowers of any country, but something of a beast to propagate from seed, I have found. Maurice went the other route, buying a plant six or seven years ago from a Cornish nursery at a flower show at RHS Wisley and it has just flowered and magnificently too.