Rhododendrons May 2008

[mark smyth]

I grow a few but there isnt much to show as all the flowers are hanging limp on the stems. They are not over just no water to keep them plump.

I have a question regarding 'Lady Alice'. Mine usually performs fantastically but for obvious reasons it's flowers are poor this year. The scent is still good.

I was in a brillant woodland garden yesterday, hello the lurking Ledshams!, where I saw a stunning 'Lady Alice' that was a rooted cutting from the parent plant. My plant has flowers that never open wide but this plant has wide open flowers. Is it possible one plant is wrong?

[johnw]

Maggi - R. minus (as opposed to the former carolinianum) can indeed be a tall, very lanky beast.

I think the ee in question is one of the three you mention: Wee Bee, Too Bee or Not Too Bee. I lost track when there were only two of those.

Here are two shots of Ginny Gee, one when first planting rhododendrons in the south and a close up from Jens Birck.

Also a shot of the Rock form of calostrotum (Jens Birck photo - with disgustingly perfect foliage - oh, had to modify this post as I see a big bite out of one leaf!) with bluer leaves than I recall on my Gigha, but Gigha never really lived long enough here to display its potential and probably had it in some shade if I recall.

johnw - beastly cold wind blowing with drizzle and around 5c.

[Kenneth K]

Maggie, I think Ledum palustre nowadays is classified as a Rhododendron with the name R tomentosum. (At least her in Sweden, where it is one of our two wild growing Rhododendrons)
Here is a picture from today of my 'Ginny Gee' It is very light pink, almost white.

[Maggi Young]

John, I have calostrotum Rock form ,too... I know where it is  ..... not good light for pic tonight.

Kenneth, yes, I know the Ledum is now a Rhodo, but I know Ledum better!

[Maggi Young]

 R. calostrotum ssp. ripariodes Rock's Form........
Ian has been "snapping" , it seems! See the Dianthus scrambling up through the rhodo!

closer to the flowers and foliage


Also its little "brother", R. calostrotum keleticum Rock 58

[Gerdk]

A question to the Rhodo-Specialists:

Is Rhododendron cinnabarinum ssp. xanthocodon easy to grow?
I found a picture of these superb yellow flowering species in a German garden magazine.
Thank you in advance.

Gerd

[Paddy Tobin]

Might I ask you rhododendron enthusiasts for your recommendations for, say, your top three rhododendrons for growing in a trough. Obviously, what I am looking for are very, very small rhododendrons, small foliage, small form, stay small etc.

Paddy

[mark smyth]

'Wren' to train and prune to hang over a corner. Margaret Glynn has some tiny Rhodos in troughs

[johnw]

A question to the Rhodo-Specialists:

Is Rhododendron cinnabarinum ssp. xanthocodon easy to grow?
I found a picture of these superb yellow flowering species in a German garden magazine.
Thank you in advance.

Gerd

Gerd - I haven't been able to buy one on the west coast that hasn't been infected with powdery mildew. Subsequently they die before I can get them planted. It is supposed to be hardier than cinnabarinum itself.

johnw

[johnw]

Might I ask you rhododendron enthusiasts for your recommendations for, say, your top three rhododendrons for growing in a trough. Obviously, what I am looking for are very, very small rhododendrons, small foliage, small form, stay small etc.

Paddy

Paddy - there are so many possibilites in your climate.  I would recommend lapponicum (the Japanese form is said to be easier, radicans (which has a horrible new name), camtschaticum in various colour forms, there is a very dwarf form of kiusianum and keiskei Yaku Fairy.  I photographed this North Tisbury  evergreen azalea hybrid at a friend's on Friday, it is the prostrate Alexander and it blooms in very late July here with salmon flowers - I guess it would be suitable for a larger trough; one of it's parent's is nakaharai and I have a witch's broom of it if you ever want a few cuttings sent.

Rhodothamnus chamaecistus is a very delectable thing that works well here -  desparately slow though. there's a superb photo of it on Christie's website.

johnw

[Maggi Young]

Rhodothamnus chamaecistus is a very delectable thing that works well here -  desparately slow though. there's a superb photo of it on Christie's website.

John, have you seen this one elsewhere on the Forum...?
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1741.msg44506;topicseen#msg44506
 A wonderful Rhodothamnus shown growing in a Bavarian Garden.... like the proverbial weed!

Is Rhododendron cinnabarinum ssp. xanthocodon easy to grow?
I found a picture of these superb yellow flowering species in a German garden magazine.

Gerd, as John says, this and cinnabarinum are very prone to powdery mildew.  They do not do well here in north eastern Scotland..... I would look out for the wonderful hybrid made by Jens Birck, see his thread.... the plant called 'What a Dane'........ it seems much more robust.

Might I ask you rhododendron enthusiasts for your recommendations for, say, your top three rhododendrons for growing in a trough. Obviously, what I am looking for are very, very small rhododendrons, small foliage, small form, stay small etc.

Paddy, three little pink charmers.... R. pumilum.....R. cephalanthum crebreflorum .....R. dendrocharis 

[Lesley Cox]

Rhododendron radicans is a perfect trough species, quite prostrate and just a very few centimetres high, maybe 5cms, in flower. The flowers are very like those of R. keleticum, above. Then there's R. keiskii ssp cordifolia. `Yaku Fairy is a selection of this but is (here) a much bigger plant than the parent which after 20 years is just 15 cms across and about 12cms high. The flowers are lemon yellow and in the winter the foliage goes a deep mahogany red, which beautifully sets off the apricot-coloured buds.


I think R. camstchaticum would also be very good in a trough though as yet I don't know how wide mine will be. The white form would be beautiful. Also RR. sargentianaum, trichostomum ledoides, hypenanthum..... and 'Oban,' 'Sarled,' 'Blue Cushion, 'Blue Steel'' etc. No end to them really.

[johnw]

John, have you seen this one elsewhere on the Forum...?
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1741.msg44506;topicseen#msg44506
 A wonderful Rhodothamnus shown growing in a Bavarian Garden.... like the proverbial weed!

Oh my! That's the best I've seen.  Barry Starling has done some wonderful intergeneric crosses with this and others ... Kalmiothamnus x ornithoma comes to mind, a multitude of Phylliopsis and Phyllothamnus etc etc


[/quote]
Paddy, three little pink charmers.... R. pumilum.....R. cephalanthum crebreflorum .....R. dendrocharis 
[/quote]

Superb and impeccable recommendations Maggi. The Glendoick selections of R. dendrocharis are hard to top - Glendoick Gem and G. Jewel and there may be one more. the Stones had a super dwarf, prostrate one as well. Perhaps it has made it across the Irish Sea.

johnw

[johnw]

[iThen there's R. keiskii ssp cordifolia. `Yaku Fairy is a selection of this but is (here) a much bigger plant than the parent which after 20 years is just 15 cms across and about 12cms high. The flowers are lemon yellow and in the winter the foliage goes a deep mahogany red, which beautifully sets off the apricot-coloured buds.

Leslie - Tell us more, your source?

Sounds great, I would opve to get my hands on one so dwarf.

A fried had Yaku Fairy and lifted it every year by a few cms. until it became a little cascading mound. Might be worth a try.

Might add repens to the list too..........as you say the sky's the limit.

johnw

[Maggi Young]

and...... R. megeratum ........'Pipit'..... there are a few little lepidotum colour forms... awfully cute 
Some of the smaller campylogynums.........R. complexum...........R. shweliense, even, for a few years, anyway...
then, if you fancy small plants but bigger flowers, R. pemakoense....R. pemakaoense patulum..... R. imperator ( we're back in the pinks again!)
I wouldn't be that keen on the R. keiskei and/or forms of it in a trough because here the foliage is never that good... you can overlook that in a garden setting but in a trough I think it would not look good enough here. Perhaps R. aureum, though the leaves are a little bigger...it would need a bigger trough to look in scale......I'm getting into  my stride here.... how long a list would you like?