Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Specific Families and Genera => Rhododendron and other Ericaceae => Topic started by: mark smyth on February 09, 2009, 10:39:14 PM
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I would like get some Rhododendrons for added colour in the back garden. Can I have some suggestions please. The larger the flower the better. The pots cant be much bigger than 18 inches
I did do this in March 2003 but cant remember doing it ::)
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Where are you planning on buying from, Mark? Garden centres or specialist mail-order, e.g. Glendoick?
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Glendoik does mail order!? It woud be them. Garden centres here all carry the same mass produced rubbish
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Mark - Try these:
yellow - Curlew or Wren, Yellow Bunting
white - Lucy Lu, leucaspis
orange - nakaharai
red - campylogynum vars., forestii Repens or chamaethomsonii, Carmen
pink - campylogynum vars, CALOSTROTUM 'GIGHA', Ginny gee
purple - CALOSTROTUM ssp. RIPARIOIDES ROCK'S FORM
Most from Glendoick, www.glendoick.com
johnw
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Glendoik does mail order!? It woud be them. Garden centres here all carry the same mass produced rubbish
Clearly you have not been credit crunched if you are thinking of Gledoick,I may be wrong but I think their minimum order is £100 plus carriage.
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£100 minimum order for overseas, £40 for UK, excluding VAT and P&P. Here's the link: (but don't blame me if you end up spending a lot more than that! (I always do) :
http://www.glendoick.com/
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Mark, Glendoick's plants are always superb, good bushy shrubs and mostly well budded so they give a good display the first year.
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You'll probably want to look first at the dwarf lepidote hybrids (Curlew etc) but also take a look at the williamsianum and repens hybrids, and at the lepidote species, including the maddenias if you want scent as well (tend to be a little tender but some should be okay for outdoors in N. Ireland).
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Sorry, I meant the maddenia hybrids (within the lepidote species section). Lady Alice Fitzwilliam is superb and really quite hardy, has survived outside here for over 10 years and a superb scent.
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Just about EVERY Rhododendron does well in a pot provided you give it the right compost and never let it dry out, maybe some shading in very hot, sunny periods. So look at catalogues with a view to size and colour you want. In a pot, the mature plant looks best if it's just a bit bigger than the pot itself, a little wider, a littler higher, seems to be a nice proportion.
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Just about EVERY Rhododendron does well in a pot provided you give it the right compost and never let it dry out. In a pot, the mature plant looks best if it's just a bit bigger than the pot itself, a little wider, a littler higher, seems to be a nice proportion.
Or in my case, MUCH bigger - e.g. I have Rhodo. 'Polar Bear', 10ft tall, in a tub about 30 inches wide by about 24 inches deep. Flowers okay though. I have little choice, my soil being limey.
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Sorry, I meant the maddenia hybrids (within the lepidote species section). Lady Alice Fitzwilliam is superb and really quite hardy, has survived outside here for over 10 years and a superb scent.
'Harry Tag', edgeworthii (a new dwarfer pink one, I believe Glendoick has it but may not be listed) and pendulum are charmers in the Maddenia as well. DALHOUSIAE var. RHABDOTUM might just blow you away, you did say big flowers.
johnw
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Just about EVERY Rhododendron does well in a pot provided you give it the right compost and never let it dry out. In a pot, the mature plant looks best if it's just a bit bigger than the pot itself, a little wider, a littler higher, seems to be a nice proportion.
Or in my case, MUCH bigger - e.g. I have Rhodo. 'Polar Bear', 10ft tall, in a tub about 30 inches wide by about 24 inches deep. Flowers okay though. I have little choice, my soil being limey.
I guess you've got it fixed very well to keep the wind from blowing it over all the time Martin ???
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I guess you've got it fixed very well to keep the wind from blowing it over all the time Martin ???
Funny you should say that. It toppled over in the snow blizzard last night. First time it's ever done that in over 10 years, being in a very sheltered corner at the back of the house. The combination of a top-heavy load of wet, sticky snow and strong gusts of wind was obviously too much for it. Must go out and pick it back up.
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Didn't want to bring a bad Omen Martin... ;)
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Can I have some suggestions for compost in pots? My wife is very keen on rhodos but I have had little success with them in 'wet' Derbyshire. We have a very good rhodo garden & nursery , Lea Nursery, near Matlock, but,unfortunately, I've lost too many in pots. The garden soil is heavy, sticky clay, Denby Pottery is just up the road, so it has to be pots.
Alan
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I have used a mixture of composted bark -(cambark)- some sterilised topsoil and some peat quite successfully. The proportions vary because every time I buy a bag of top soil from either B&Q or Dobbies, the quality varies. I just guddle about until it feels right, which means free draining, and then plant up.
It's better to err on the side of free draining than plant in a miniature paddy field. It is also worth remembering that if the foliage is a greater diameter than the pot, this can prevent natural rainfall getting down to the soil.
Another sensible idea is to get a larger diameter pot than you think is necessary because the Rhododendron's roots mainly grow sideways, not down.
Why not change some of your soil in the garden. My soil is heavy boulder clay which is death to most rhododendrons, so I spent some money on bales of composted bark and bags of topsoil. I dug this into some areas in the garden and effectively raised the height of the planting area by about 12". The rhododendrons and camellias are thriving. The rain in Derbyshire is nothing like what we get on the west coast of Scotland.
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Tom,
Thanks for your advice.
One used to be able to purchase Cambark 'Fine' which I used, together with peat & ericaceous compost from Ashwoods, to make a deep bed in very chalky soil in Hertfordshire which was a great success and I grew a large range of acid loving plants.
Alan
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Thanks everyone for your input
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No 18 in limit here.
From Tivoli , Copenhagen
birck
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I like what I see. What size are the pots and what the, , is the big pipe coming down the garden
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Pots are app. 70 cm in Ø.
The pipe is 5 in glassed tile hand rail - 12 in from the camera lens!
And here a shot from job done. (No peat o fobia here)
birck
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thanks for the information
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The pipe is 5 in glassed tile hand rail - 12 in from the camera lens!
Don't believe him Mark! Those Danes have really big hands and that's why the handrails are so huge. They always seem to grab the best rhododendron seed and plants at the sales. ;D
johnw