Rhododendrons are Interesting in Summer

Growing rhododendrons may have an ultimate aim for beautiful flowers in the spring months, but other features provide interest at other times of year. Flowers only last 2-3 weeks, so it is good to have virtues all year. 
Many of the rhododendrons we grow have been selected for interesting foliage. The emerging new growth shows  great variety in leaf form, texture and colour.
One of our all time favourites with respect to wonderful foliage was a cross of (R. yakushimanum x R. pachysanthum) done in 2001 by Joe Harvey from B.C. Many of these plants have found their way into the gardens of ARHS members, but some have stayed with us. We have dubbed then "Blue Heaven" because of the lovely blue-gray tomentum that appears each summer. 

All have nice furry indumentum which stays after the tomentum wears off as the season progresses.
We have a duplicate seed lot(ARHS06#49) of this same cross grown in 2006. Many show the nice characteristics of the 2001 plants. There is some variation in degree and amount of tomentum. It is remarkable that the plants from the 2001 seeding have not bloomed yet. We are not really disappointed in that feature since they more than hold their own in the garden.

R. pachysanthum is quite predictable in producing tomentums of some nature on almost all offspring of any hybrid cross. We have quite a number of hybrids from various seed lots. One other notable feature of the R. pachysanthum crosses is the very early bloom time. Bloom time here in Antigonish is usually around May20th, a week or more before many of the other large leaf rhodies bloom.
Three of our favourite R. pachysanthum crosses are 'Henry's Red' x R. pachysanthum, 'Janet Blair' x R. pachysanthum, and 'Calsap' x R. pachysanthum.

Leafy growth is the main feature of a couple of plants we have referred to as the "Bear Cubs". These are a cross of 'Teddy Bear' x R. rex. The tenderness of R. rex doesn't make it the most logical candidate for here in Northern N.S., but the 'Teddy Bear' parent seems to impart a necessary bit of hardiness. We were surprised by an actual flower on one of these plants this spring. Hopefully as the plant sets buds on the upper parts they will withstand winter!
They make quite large leaves, and have furry tomentum on the new leaf surfaces and along the stems.

"Bear Cub" tomentum 

Many seedlings give a hint at future performance , even when quite young. Some of the plants from 2008 seedlots are showing quite exuberant colouring on some of the new growth.

This 'Normandy' x R. calophytum cross will hopefully be an improvement on the species as we see it here. It seems to struggle just a bit, some years doing very well, others years not so well. Several of the R. calophytum species were grown by Bill and have found their way to ARHS members' gardens. It would be interesting to know how they are faring.
It is anyone's guess as to what may actually transpire at maturity, but colourful new leaves are enticing.

Rhododendron Seedlings That Grew Up

I have spent a bit of time perusing pictures to pick out some candidates for prints over the last day or two. We don't get many done, perhaps a couple of hundred a year. It is still rather pleasant to have a "hard" copy of an image. We usually wait until there is a special offer at a retail printer rather than doing any "at home" printing.
There are inevitably some rhododendron pictures chosen. In today's list there were some seed grown plants that range in age from 10-16 years. A lot of our seedlings have also lost their original labels, so a bit of guesswork is sometimes in order.
The season of 2010 was quite a good one, bloom-wise. There were probably some plants blooming we had rarely noticed before.
One was a very nice plant from 1994. Judging from the seed order records, it should be the smirnowii cross on the label, but we can't be 100% sure. 

There are a couple of plants from 1995 seedlings that are quite interesting. We have two of this candy striped plant. We sent some cuttings off a few years ago and received one plant via the ARHS Member Sale. We haven't attached any name, so just call it the "899 double calyx". It is such a complex cross that it is difficult to speculate what characteristics came from where. It is possible that yellow was the aim, but that doesn't always happen!

I rather enjoy the doubling effect found in many plants. The same effect is seen in this plant from 2001. I believe we finally got around to moving this one last summer. It will need a season or two to recover from the crowding it experienced in the nursery bed.

Another example of this doubling is found in some of the plants of (Always Admired x Barbara Cook) from 1996. These were in a very poor situation until a couple of years ago, when we moved them. They have started to resemble a much nicer plant. We hope they didn't get too flattened by this winter's snow load.

Some of our favourite plants are seedlings with R. pachysanthum as the pollen parent. A seed lot from ARS 1995 gave quite a number of hardy plants, which bloom most years. They are 'Calsap' x R. pachysanthum and most have some version of the distinctive blotch characteristic of 'Calsap'. They are relatively compact plants and most have a lovely cinnamon coloured tomentum on the new growth.

Another group of R. pachysanthum hybrids are growing beautifully in our Oak bed. This picture shows their colourful  new growth. 

The nicest of these we have dubbed "Blue Heaven" in response to the lovely silvery blue tomentum. 

Another plant which literally rose up and looked us in the eye was this tall plant with quite nice yellow flowers from 1999. It also got moved in 2010. 

Keeping track of the progress of all the seedlings Bill has grown is a job we actually do quite poorly! We have attempted a bit better stab at recording all the bloom, but never quite make it.
This plant grew from seed donated by Bruce Clyburn from here in Nova Scotia has quite good red colour. 

A tremendous number of seedlings grown here seem to have rhododendron 'Janet Blair' as the seed parent. She is a very good mother, it seems! One example I came across today was from 1996 seed. Not especially outstanding, but the plant has performed consistently over a number of years. 

This little look into seedlings "grown up" will end here, but could go on seemingly indefinitely.

Bulb Planting Finished

The seasonal chore of bulb planting may have been finished yesterday.

We have been fairly restrained to this point, only putting in about 250 new bulbs, compared to a thousand last year.

I am of the opinion one can never have too many spring bulbs. They are among my very favourite plant categories.

One of several areas carpeted with many of the "tiny" bulbs....Scilla siberica , in this case.

The very vibrant tulip Praestans unicum. They are very bright and early, but deer love them.

Some mixed tulips I have a tendency to adopt favourites , and add more of some types each year. One such tulip is 'Spring Green', quite an elegant late bloomer that blends well with just about everything, especially rhododendrons. It is sometimes a bit of trial and error to find which tulips will perennialize rather dependably. I am hoping that 'Shirley's Dream' will be one that does. 2007 was the first year for these.

Narcissus are my all round favourites, and we have many varieties(75 or more). This group of a pink one named 'Accent' did very well last year. Prepared space is getting to be quite scarce. One little trick which proves to be space worthy, and quite aesthetic is to plant "bulbs on bulbs".....little bulbs like Grape Hyacinths, Anemones and crocus can get planted on top on deeper plantings of tulips, hyacinths or narcissus. They will bloom at the sane time or in sequence. An example would be the Anemone blanda with these purple Hyacinths.

Perhaps after Bill's new venture on the back hillside there will be spots that "need " bulbs another year.

The plan for this lower area near the Rhodie nursery bed is to move some rhododendrons of named varieties, or at least chosen ones, so they have some elbow room.

Tissue culture plants, and some returned rooted cuttings of our own plants need to be moved in the spring. There are a bunch of these at the bottom of this 2005 nursery area that are getting too shady on the east side, and are starting to lean!

This is the 2004 nursery bed in July, 2007. growth this past season has been very good, and quite a few of the 3-4 year-old plants have flower buds. These plants came out here in the spring of 2005, having been grown as seedlings from the fall of 2004.

The "teenagers in the the nursery" syndrome is forever plaguing us.