Rhododendrons May 2008

[johnw]

Finally the dauricums are just at peak on the coast just 30 minutes from Halifax near Peggy's Cove. Spring is just a bit later than here in the city as you can see.

johnw

[johnw]

Maggi - Thanks for all the marvellous rhododendron pictures, I'm drooling over the ones you can grow so well.

How long have you had elegantulum?  A lovely species.

johnw

[Maggi Young]

Insert Quote
Maggi - Thanks for all the marvellous rhododendron pictures, I'm drooling over the ones you can grow so well.

How long have you had elegantulum?  A lovely species.

johnw

Thank you, John. I am besotted by the Ericaeae and Rhododendrons in particular. 

Now then how long has R. elegantulum been here? Good question  Well, it has been moved once and has been in its present spot for around twenty years, so, I suppose about twenty two or 23 yrs. It is about six foot high and about the same across the top  growth. A very manageable size for even a smallish garden at that scale, I think. I love it because it is so oblignig about giving out of season flowers, and, of course, the foliage is good.

[Maggi Young]

A couple of updates on the plants shown earlier this month......

'Cowslip' is now fully open
As is 'Dora Amateis'
Here's a view across Dora Amateis in the back garden
Dora is so reliable I have her in the front garden too! Here she is with 'Karin' with large soft pink flowers
I think this is Patty Bee, or Ginny Gee or Wee Bee... they are all the same to me, I'm afraid!
This is a good bright pink hybrid which we've had for a LONG time! It is 'Osmar' -- old German breeding, williamsianum blood

[Maggi Young]

Back to the back garden now.....
 R. glaucophyllum  Glenarn form....or is it the Branklyn form 
and closer....
This is another of Ian's seed raised plants, not sure what it is...mind you, I can say that of half the plants I did once know the names of, too.....three pix of shoots and the very sweet flowers
A view across from the glaucophyllum...
Across R. makinoi etc
Mixed leaves!  From foreground...A yak hybrid 'Grumpy', a very motheaten hybrid which is about to get the chop and R. catawbiense, mostly!

[Maggi Young]

Here is a raised bed.....
and here is a little saluense type rhodo, whose name I cannot remember!
a closer  pic of its flower
The Ledum I showed last week is more fully out now..

[Maggi Young]

Since muddled is my middle name these days, these plants may not be correctly named!
 R. decorum shoots

R. fortunei discolor

[Roma]

Maggi, is your little saluense rhodo calostrotum?  My calostrotum 'Gigha' is looking good today.  It always peaks about a week before the Aberdeen show. I notice from last year's photos that Princess Anne was at her best on April 24 last year but is about the same stage today this year.   

[Maggi Young]

Yes, Roma, I think that it is calostrotum.... I have it, and a 'Gigha'..... do you think this is the Gigha form?
The other one is very overgrown and isn't flowering at the moment, I thought it might be Gigha, now I think about it.

[Maggi Young]

Roma, I do hope that you will have some other plants which will be peaking next week ... in perfect time for the Aberdeen show on the 17th May!  We ( whisper this so no-one hears) have got nothing  Unless you count a Cyclamen that is well past its best, a Ramonda which isn't out and a Syringa palbiniana in tight bud in a glazed decorative pot  And I don't think anyone would count  those 

[johnw]

Maggi  - looks like Gigha to me. Have lost it many times, someone said lime it. What do you do?

re: your Pattee Bee may bee Wee Bee. Here's a wee picture of Wee Bee from Jens.

Love your makinoi and I should have gotten one at the big rhodo sale today, they were gorgeous big plants grown by Briggs Nursery from the Species Foundation seed.

Ian's seedling may bee R. carolinianum, now R. minus var. minus, argh.

johnw

[Maggi Young]

Does Gigha have more blue to the leaves, than the type, then? I cannot think 

We never add lime anywhere, John... I think that is why we have so much bother with the little daphnes outside, and some iris, and ,and, and ! 

[Maggi Young]

Now I think about it, Patty Bee is yellow, and I don't have it! I think it is Ginny Gee... she looks awful because she is overgrown. Wee Bee or To Bee or Not Too Bee (... is there a difference?) is  squashed under a dwarf lilac.... its a bit pinker all over the flower than Ginny Gee, I think.


Interesting point about Carolianum/ minus..... we used to grow that, though it was given away to a friend making a new garden many years ago....I remember the growth habit as being much more compact... this is a tall, leggy creature!

[Lesley Cox]

That's a great relief to me. Didn't want to have to say my `Patty Bee' is yellow 

[Maggi Young]

Sorry, Lesley, glad we got that sorted out. It's all these ruddy Bees and Gees and Bee Gees... no, they're the band, aren't they? I CAN recognise them...and that is also worrying....