The message
from Sacha contains these words:
On 12/8/06 00:05, "Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" wrote:
snip

If you have difficulty finding R. arboreum then you could try the
Glendoick People. Years since I had contact with them but I remember
them as being very knowledgeable and helpful folk
http://www.glendoick.com/index.shtml

Thanks, Rupert. I'd really like to find that one. We have a 'Rhododendron
Walk' here which Edward Hyams planted originally and we've kept going. I
think it would be particularly nice to have Rhodos like this one which
flower late and smell so gorgeous.

Rumour has it that, since the 'younger generation' took over the
running of the Glendoick set-up, they're not nearly so helpful...

Friends of mine certainly had a bit of hassle to get a 'sick' Rhoddy
(one of several, all bought at the same time, and planted in the same
bed) replaced. All the others were perfectly healthy. The 'garden centre
person' tried to persuade them that it was their own fault, and they'd
done something wrong, i.e. planted it somewhere with 'less than ideal'
conditions. It took a great deal of persistence before they got a
replacement.

Thus are reputations, built up over many years, lost...

--
AnneJ