07-04-2003, 07:32 PM
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Overspent on rhodies, gawdammee
In article ,
(Linda Adie) wrote:
I was reading your article with interest, in my country of Scotland we
have Rhododendrons everywhere, I have two small ones in my garden
called Linda, Ruby Hart another solution could be to go for Azaleas
the are a member of the same family and have lovely flowers and of
course they are small. Hope this helps in some way.
Kind regards
Linda
There are a few places in the world where Rhododendron Societies are
EXTREME in their activity, including here in the Pacific Northwest, in New
England, & in Scotland. In great part due to your countryman Peter Cox,
the number of dwarf lepidote evergreen rhododendrons available to the
world is extensive & increasing. Though the dwarfs I just obtained & a few
others long installed are mostly pure species shrubs, Cox has been
hybridizing for broader color range & to use the alpine lepidotes to
increase cold-hardiness of non-alpine shrubs, & using such things as the
"Yaku Fairy" prostrate form to cause other smallish rhodies to become
extremely small. I'd love to be able to visit the Cox family nursery's
display collection, but I'm not likely ever to be able to travel so far.
The dwarf azaleas have greater color range than the lepidote rhodies, & if
the lepidotes are the best lavenders & light purples, the azaleas have the
best reds. I've many azaleas, but even the dwarves will mostly be four to
six feet someday, whereas most of these dwarf lepidotes will never be more
than two feet if even so big as that, so a "layering" of shrubs can occur,
big rhodies & big deciduous azaleas, then dwarf evergreen azaleas, then
ultra-dwarf alpine lepidote rhodies. Since I started out planting trees &
big shrubs four years ago, & pretty-near filled up the gardens with those,
I'm now to the point where mostly only little things can be added.
I had rhodies blooming somewhere or another in the garden from February
to August (R. nakahari blooms July, and an old shrub of uncertain cultivar
I call "similar to Lee's Purple" reliably reblooms for early autumn). The
majority of course are March through May. Some people gripe that rhody
blooms don't last long enough, but if you select for early & late
bloomers, they're around half the year. And if they're selected for form &
shape & leaf, they're gorgeous even not in bloom. I've selected a few
because the evergreen leaves turn bright colors in winter (mahagony for
"PJM," bright red for "Stewartsiana") & deciduous azaleas are the most
splendid of autumn shrubs for bright-bright colors.
I've tried not to be t otally emersed in rhodies & azaleas though, & also
like native deciduous shrubs a great deal, especially berrying shrubs that
bring red & orange & white & purply-black drupes (berries) into the
gardens for autumn & winter, & stuff that blooms in winter like Winter
Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima), Dawn Viburnum, Witchhazel...
-paghat the ratgirl
--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/
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