Rhododendrons May 2008

[Lesley Cox]

What do you mean Maggi, by "the foliage is never that good?" It's always fine here, neat and compact, well coloured in the cold, though all my dwarfs can be attacked by leaf roller if I don't keep a close eye. 'Oban' is particularly vulnerable.

John, my original keiskii ssp. cordifolia came to me in 1970, in the pocket of a Japanese gentleman called Kazuo Mori, when he visited NZ. We had corresponded for a few years and he brought a very nice selection with him, including Dicentra peregrina et al. He brought 3 tiny seedlings (of the rhodo), less than 1cm high and gave two to me and one to Byllee Hannan, long time secretary of what is now NZ Alpine Garden Soc. Byllee died later and I don't know what happened to her plants or garden.

My tiny two grew quite quickly to start with then very slowly for about 15 years before I had any seed though they flowered at about 5 years old if I remember rightly. I was able to give seeds to a couple of friends but never grew any myself for a long time. During all that time I moved house 5 times and always took the rhodo with me. It always took a couple of years to recover and start to flower again and a couple of times I came very close to losing it altogether from too dry summers. More than once it has spent a week sitting in a bucket of water.

It's doing well now though does need careful watering through the dry times and is going to flower well this year following a relatively poor year in 2007. In 2005 I had good seed from it and sowed some and sent the rest to Otto Fauser in Australia and some to SRGS. I'm hoping for more this year and will send some if you'd like it. Hand pollinating may help. The seedlings are growing on well and will be usable by the spring I think. Would you like to try a couple? Or even now while they could get going before your own winter?

According to Kazuo Mori when he gave me the seedlings, he said that they were from a single very compact plant that grows at the summit of Yakushima (Yaku Island) in Japan, and is valued for its very tight and compact habit. My present plant is a 20 yr old sdlg from the original.

Here it is today, just beginning to take on winter colour, and with about 25 trusses.


Then one of the current seedlings (about 2 years old)


And in flower, 2006

[Maggi Young]

Lesley, that is a very nice form you have there 
Here in North Eastern Scotland I find that all the keiskei, keiskei form  rhodos tend to have poorly coloured foliage, they are very prone to being eaten by EVERYTHING..... and the leaf shape is often squinny... perhaps I just have poor forms, but I see this problem in other gardens, too.
I have R. keiskei...... keiskei cordifolia....... Yaku Fairy...... keiskei Ebino form...... a keiskei x Yaku Fairy back cross......
a larger hybrid called Yaku Princess, which I think was a Yaky Fairy x carolianum hybrid.....  not great!

None do well enough for my liking here!

[johnw]

Maggi  - Are your keiskeis in full sun? That seems to cure the pest problem.

johnw

[johnw]

The seedlings are growing on well and will be usable by the spring I think. Would you like to try a couple? Or even now while they could get going before your own winter?

Leslie - Selfed seed or even one seedling would be fantastic.  I'll contact you directly.

With thanks for the pictures and history.

johnw

[Gerdk]

Maggi, John,

Thank you both. Sensitive to mildew! This will be a reason for me not to plant the pure species.

Gerd

[Maggi Young]

Maggi  - Are your keiskeis in full sun? That seems to cure the pest problem.

johnw

They were once, John!  Doesn't seem to make much difference.
as to FULL SUN..... Bear in mind that this is Scotland  and most are now a bit overgrown 

[Maggi Young]

 1 and 2 Here is keiskei cordifiolia... it is the best of those I have...the plant and a closer shot..
a few more from today...
3 and 4  R. bureauvii flowers above my head... not many flowers on this plant this year
5 This may be a faded Ginny Gee!!
6 A fuzzy pic of Axel Olsen... see chewed leaves 
7 The deep pink bud of R. glaucopyhllum Branklyn form
8 'Vintage Rose' a very nice Yakushimanum hybrid, has these super pink flowers
9 and 10 'Dusty Miller' one of my favourite Yak. hybrids.....great colour and habit, but also because Dusty was my spaniel 

[Maggi Young]

 1 and 2 Some flowers and new growth.... such pretty combinations of bloom and leaf.....

 3 The tall white shoot is gorgeous... it's on a plant with bullate leaves... pity is is being chewed by caterpillers
4 Lovely 'Maricee' is coming out
5 Another I cannot think of the name 

[Maggi Young]

as the rhodos grow together and through eachother, a wonderful patchwork emerges

[Lesley Cox]

Your keiskii ssp. cordifolia seems to be ENORMOUS compared to mine Maggi.

[Maggi Young]

Your keiskii ssp. cordifolia seems to be ENORMOUS compared to mine Maggi.

Yours does look very neat, Lesley.
You can see the scale of this one by the Leucogynes leontopodium shoots in the foreground.....I suppose it is about 40cms  by 45cms wide in the wider shot... it is only about 12-15cms tall though... it is growing on a mounded bed, so it appears taller than it really is because the ground is rising away from the eye.....front to back the plant is about 45 cms total  and it spreads wider to each side to a total of about 68 cms.
 That plant has been in that positon for 23 years.

[Lesley Cox]

That should be "normal" then because I always understood that `Yaku Fairy' was a selected DWARF form (it's not a hybrid) whereas my `Yaku Fairy' is about 10 times as big as the other. Literally. I must be very fortunate to have this tiny form and must make a better effort to spread it around.

[johnw]

Leslie - Somewhere here I have a slide of the original Yaku Fairy at Barry Starling's in Devon. 10 years ago it was about 1m across and very low, maybe 25cm.  It would have been about 25-30 years old then.

Problem is Warren Berg grew the same seed and called one of his Yaku Fairy after the AM was presented to Barry as Warren reckoned they were the same! At the Rhododendron Species Foundation you will see the two side by side with the same name but a different accession number and source. No question Barry's true YF is the best. The only way to check yours is by the RSF acc. number. I hope the RSF gets this straightened out.

johnw

[Lesley Cox]

And somewhere here, I have a short article in an old AGS Bulletin which tells about the origins and selection of `Yaku Fairy.' Of course I can't find it. My indices only go as far as Vol 30 so it must be after that. I seem to recall it was selected in the States, and it was maybe Tom Stuart who wrote about it, but the memory isn't 100 % reliable about such things. I'll try to fish it out sometime when I have nothing else to do.  (That isn't a grin actually, it's derisive, bordering on maniacal laughter.)

[johnw]

Two eastern North American hybrids at a friend's garden this morning, both well worth growing. In Scotland I'm told these can be cantankerous, might suggest a very dry sunny area or maybe a scree even.

April Gem - the white, April Mist - the bi-colour. Both tend to be rangy it pots which make them a hard sell, very sad but they do fill out slowly with age.

I was tempted to yank those daffodils.

johnw