Benmore BG, May 2015

[Matt T]

WARNING: this thread contains a lot of Rhododendrons!

I took in Benmore, the botanic garden in the mountains, as my first stop on a mini tour of Scottish gardens last week. This was my first visit, a bit drizzly at times, but with Argyll being sheltered (relative to the Western Isles) I was adequately protected by my brolly. As a result, there are some parts of the garden that I didn't get photos from, not that you'd know it.

On entering the gardens you are greeted by a huge patch of Primula pulverulenta by the gate lodge.

Many areas are under development in the gardens, including a Chilean ridge with lots (literally, a hundred or more) of Araucaria surrounding a beautifully crafted timber refuge.

The Bhutan garden cascades down the mountainside with plants 'zoned' as they would be in their wild habitats.

A major focus of the gardens is its collection of Rhododendrons, especially the species. Here is Rhododendron lanatum with attractively burnished indumentum high up in the Bhutan garden, but the real show of flower power was elsewhere...

[Matt T]

The Rhododendron collection is planted throughout the gardens. You can wander the many paths in infinite permutations, as I did, so I'll post the Rhododendron pics in no particular order.

Rhododendron 'Moonstone'
Rhododendron thomsonii - no flowers but with very attractive bark
Rhododendron rex fictolactea - a towering plant
Rhododendron fortunei discolor - who need flowers when your leaf bud bracts look this good??
Rhododendron campanulatum album

[Matt T]

Rhododendron ? - I couldn't find a label for this one, but suspect it might be a hybrid rather than a species. The camera didn't quite pick up the wonderful colour of these flowers, which had more of a contrast between the yellow flushed with pink
Rhododendron sinogrande? - no label, but I think my ID is ok?
Rhododendron rubiginosum - this is a very large plant, the lowest branches were well above head height, it's just dwarfed by the coniferous specimen behind!
Rhododendron cinnabarinum xanthocodon - so beautiful it deserved two photos.

[Matt T]

Rhododendron campylocarpum caloxanthum - the softest yellow colour was beautiful
Rhododendron 'Shintsune' - a very floriferous Japanese azalea (sadly with a low browse line, perhaps muntjac?)
Rhododendron arboreum delavayi - in both red and pink
Rhododendron albrechtii

[Matt T]

Finally, a few pics of the amazing, restored Victorian fernery. A dramatic building/situation with the gable end wall soaring to 11 metres at the head of this landscaped gully. Inside, the planting is laid out over three levels providing a range of habitats. The view from the upper level (warmest and sunniest) looks over the middle terrace with the tree ferns, which shade the lowest, cool and moist level. The gable walls include rocky niches for epi-/lithophytic ferns to be grown, including a wide range of Polypodium species. One of the walls is formed by a natural rock outcrop that drips water. Here I found the only non-pteridophyte growing in this building, Valdivia gayana, a curious but beautiful plant in the family Escalloniaceae.