We also got a bunch of the OZ besseae's (probably over 100), so I was able to compare them to our own besseae's side by side. Yes, in general I have to agree with Heather. I think our own besseae's tend to be darker in color (more saturated) than the OZ besseae's. The OZ besseae's tend to be more orange red in color, and some of them acutally turned out more of a peach color.
The reason that ours are more dark in color is because I always tend to select parents that have the darkest colors, while Terry proabably was selecting his parents based more on shape (more rounded petals) and size, rather than color per se. Like I stated his besseae's do all have more that 'rounded look' to them, which is a personal preferance if you like that or not, ours tend to have more "pointed" petals. We did select some of Terry's besseae's that were outstanding in size and shape, so we bred them with our line of besseae's to hopefully get more larger besseae's that have the same saturation in color as our own.
I don't think the OZ plants looked more gangly than ours, that may be a matter of culture rather than genetics.
Robert