On 12/8/06 19:57, in article ,
"Chris Hogg" wrote:

On Sat, 12 Aug 2006 14:29:10 +0100, Stewart Robert Hinsley
wrote:



White's not necessarily a problem - Rhododendron arboreum comes in
assorted colours from white to intense red - but I was about to query
the identification based on the flowering season, as the ones I've seen
flower in April or May.

Rhododendron 'Polar Bear', as mentioned downthread by Charlie, is a
large-flowered, white, hybrid, which I've seen flowering in July.

Looking at the Loder Plants (www.rhododendrons.com) website I see that
there's a Rh. arboreum Kuma 639 which is white-flowered, and flowers
from June to August, and also Rh. arboreum var cinnamoneum album ditto.
It looks as if flowering time, like hardiness, depends on provenance.

The white subspecies, Rh. arboreum var cinnamoneum, is apparently a
lot hardier than Rh. arboreum itself. But is it scented?

According to the Burncoose catalogue, Polar Bear is very late
flowering (Jun-Aug) with large trusses of white flowers and
'enormously scented'!

I am not getting all posts, so I apologise if I appear to be ignoring people
who have been very helpful. It is not intentional. The Polar Bear ID
sounds a possible but a lot would depend on when it was introduced. The one
we saw was a very old, well established plant and Ray's guess is that it was
30 to 40 years old, maybe even more.

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/