Rhododendrons 2014

[Thorkild Godsk]

Hello
I know that it is not Rhododendron time now, but 3 pictures anyway.
Rhododendron Yakushimanum
40 years
Rhododendron trichostomum
also 40 years
Kindly Thorkild

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Wonderful yakushimanum, Thorkild !
Also my favourite !!

[Robert]

Mr. Godsk

I enjoyed your post and have been wanting to reply however my wife and I have been on vacation for the past 3 weeks. R. trichostomum is such a beautiful lepidote rhododendron. We can, with much effort, keep it alive and get it to bloom here in interior Northern California. Many of the dwarf lepidotes do not like our 32 to 40 C summertime temperatures so we have to be creative to get them to grow and look good.

We also enjoy the foliage, structure, bark, etc. of many rhododendrons throughout the seasons. Attached are photographs of R. luteum in fall color. Always excellent here. The other photograph is of a new R. edgeworthii hybrid that we have been watching as it progresses. This will be the first season for it to bloom. You can see the multiple buds on the terminal ends of the branches. It has nice foliage, a good compact habit, and most of all it is heat tolerant. It is definitely in our breeding trials and hopefully will be a keeper.

Robert

[Thorkild Godsk]

Hello Robert.
Rhododendron trichostomum stands to the north, and it gets a lot of wind, we have more cool here. Azalea luteum has a lovely scent and is a good plante.2 large Rhododendron, which I think is good is Rhododendron Phyllis Korn and Rhododendron Gartendirektor Rieger.
1 photo: Azalea luteum
2 photo: Rh. Phyllis Korn
3 photo: Gartendiretor Rieger.
Kindly
Thorkild-DK

[Robert]

Greetings Thorkild,

Your rhododendrons bud and bloom so heavily. They look so very nice! Your garden must be very beautiful and it is clear that you have been working with the plants for many years. I have to admit that 90% of the rhododendrons in our garden are of my own making or species I've grown from seed. I'm not at all familiar with R. 'Gartendiretor Rieger'. It seems like you get many flowers from it and it looks to be a compact plant too. Very nice! I've read about R. 'Phyllis Korn' for years but have never seen her myself. The foliage on your plant looks excellent and plenty of blossoms too.

Attached is a photograph of 'Karakal's Mr. Ruffles' one of my few elepidote hybrids. The photograph is a little out of focus, but he is a very good rhododendron for us. Good compact habit and very heat tolerant. Mr. Ruffles is also tolerant of the racoons that seem determined to walk over him rather than around him.

The next attachment one of my best selections of Rhododendron austrinum. We call it 'Karakal's Pascagoula' from the area in Mississippi where the seed was gathered. The fragrance in the spring is very sweet. Some springs the new growth is dark plum-purple red, however this seems dependent on the weather, the cooler the brighter the coloration. It's nice in the garden, now about 3 meters tall. I don't do much with these now, focusing my attention on a dwarf deciduous azalea project as well as heat tolerant dwarf lepidotes and cold hardy, heat tolerant, compact Maddenia hybrids.

Robert

[Maggi Young]

I find myself giving thanks that racoons are not something we have to contend with here.......

[Robert]

Maggi,

Racoons are sweet creatures.....?! So are the wild birds. We have to cover all of our seed pans and liners of alpines, bulbs, etc. with bird netting and plastic deer fencing to keep the racoons and wild birds out and the plants safe. It doesn't look so good but it does work.

Right now our biggest issue is the drought. The driest weather in our short weather history going back to 1887. One newspaper report said that it hasn't been this dry for 125,000 years. My brother is a climate scientist. He says it hasn't reached that point yet. As a farmer I may not be planting crops this year.... maybe just trying to save our breeding projects, the orchard, and the ornamental garden. I survived the 1976-1977 drought years so maybe everything will turn out okay this time around. I've been wanting to retire from farming, but around here I've never meet a farmer that ever retired!

Robert

[Maggi Young]

Drought is not something we're having to worry about here, Robert 

I know what you mean about farmers not retiring - they just keep ploughing on.............     

[Robert]

Our rhododendron blooming season will be starting soon. With the mild weather we have been having lately, I was thinking I might see color on the R. dauricum ' Midwinter'. Nothing showing yet.

In the mean time, I do enjoy the structure of some of our rhododendrons throughout the year. The photo is of R. auriculatum grown from seed started about 1985. I remember that it started blooming at 11 years of age. Every summer it blooms about the first week of July with its fragrant white flowers.

We are fortunate to have blooming rhododendrons, more or less continuously, from January(R. dauricum) to early September(R. viscosum serrulatum group). Fall-winter color last from October to January-February. We enjoy structure, foliage, bark, etc. all season. They are great plants for our garden even here in the hot interior of Northern California.

Robert

[Maggi Young]

I have to mention the sorry tale of my R. auriculatum, Robert -  it's older than yours and only began to flower a couple of years ago - I thought I would die waiting!  To be fair, the poor thing is not in a great position - and hearing seeing it look so well for you in all your heat, I begin to have more sympathy with it!
Here it flowers in August.  I assume from your success that  many rhodos are more tolerant of heat than I might have suspected. Quite a few suffer in warm dry weather even here.

Your first photo shows how well rhodos can combine to give structure to a view and highlight the fall colours around them so nicely.  I think too few folks realise what variation in foliage and bark there is in rhodos  and how attractive they really are.

[Robert]

Maggi,

Yes, many rhododendrons dislike our dry heat. I try to be open minded and creative in my thinking. I'm constantly being surprised by what works. Growing from seed makes a huge difference. Brian Fagan's book 'The Little Ice Age' really got me thinking about how quickly plants have had to adjust to abrupt changes in climate. After all they can't walk away! Mr. Fagan's book 'The Long Summer' is excellent too.

I keep hoping our R. mallotum will bloom some day. It is the same age as our R. auriculatum. The foliage is great, however the poor plant is all twisted around from the snow load over the years. Another one of those things for me to be open minded about. This season R. calophytum will be blooming for the first time. Not so long a wait on this one. I don't think that it helped that a tree limb took most of the top out a number of years ago!

I'll be posting some photos of those surprise rhododendrons as I am able.

Robert

[uvularia]

Seeing the Rhododendron section , I thought it would be nice to post a photo of Rhododendron johnstoneanum. I found this on Khaiyang Phung 2850m in Manipur in 2012.
Very remote. And also Sorbus keenanii

[uvularia]

And the sorbus!

[Maggi Young]

Great photos, Paul. (though of course I  find all rhodos to be endlessly photogenic!)

The leaves of the Sorbus almost look like a Mahonia at first glance- I smart thing. Did seed come back for the nursery?

Those hills in background could hardly squeeze in a single extra tree, if they tried could they? 

[Robert]

Paul

The R. johnstoneanum looks sweet!

Any other information about its environment? Was it terrestrial or epiphytic? It looks very deforested in the area.

Below is a photo of R. johnstoneanum x moupinense F1. It is cold hardy for us, however the flower buds are tender below -3 to -4 c. We grow it in a container to keep it safe from the cold. It's habit is nice and compact.

Robert