On Sun, 6 Apr 2003 18:17:38 +0100, "Oryx"
wrote:

When I moved into my house 3 years ago I inherited an established garden
containing (amongst other things) a healthy Rhododendron approximately 3
foot high by 4 foot wide.

The garden is sited on moderately heavy clay soil and is south facing. The
Rododendron is in a sheltered spot in partial shade in the morning but gets
a fair amount of sun in the afternoon. In early spring the plant produces
numerous flowers. These consist of the sepals anthers and stamens but no
petals are produced whatsoever. The fruits/seeds are developing at the
moment and all appear quite normal. I know that the fruits are fertile as I
now possess several baby Rhododendrons that have self seeded and exhibit the
same petal-less appearance as their parent. The plant itself appears very
healthy and is producing an abundance of new shoots at present.

Is this lack of petals due to the variety of Rhododendron I own or is it
caused either by disease or the conditions in which it grows ? Although I
love my Rhododendron I am envious of all the Rhododendrons sporting flowers
in other peoples gardens.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Helen

Nowhere can I find a disease that gives the effects you describe.
Plenty of information on failure to set flowers at all, and
information on buds that set and then go brown and never open, due to
fungus disease (bud blast), and loss of flowers due to damage by
flower thrips (mainly in the US), and petal blight which turns petals
into a brown mess and occurs mainly on azaleas, but nothing about
petal-less flowers. I suppose it's remotely possible that the buds
were damaged at some time over the winter, by frost or insect attack,
but I wouldn't expect all the buds to be affected in the same way, let
alone the seedlings, and your post implies it's a regular occurrence.

I think you've got a rogue. Grub it out (and its offspring) and treat
yourself to a well-behaved modern hybrid. Now's the time to make a
choice, when they're all in flower. It might be wise not to plant it
in exactly the same place though.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net