early rhododendrons

[scotia]

In Central Scotland this winter we have had rain, hail, sleet, snow and lots of wind - but very little frost. So our early rhododendrons have had an unusually extended blooming season. Some years they have hardly broken out of bud before the frost got them. So here are a couple of photos taken last week in the garden:-
First its Praecox - which can stand some frost. I keep one in a container, and can shelter it when frost threatens - but so far this year there has been no need.



Next is Cilpinense. I'm afraid its not as hardy as Praecox, and it quickly outgrows a container. But its a lovely flower, opening pink and almost becoming white, with attractive glossy green foliage.



So any other suggestions for a large flowered rhodo (like Cilpinense) which blooms in February and is reasonably frost hardy?

[bungeejumper]

Beautiful, thank you. We're nowhere near that stage down south in Wiltshire - dammit, I won't be expecting to see rhodies for another four weeks, maybe six, maybe longer! Even the daffodils are still only thinking about opening up. But my wife's hellebores are in full flow - how are yours, Scotia?

BJ

[scotia]

Beautiful, thank you. We're nowhere near that stage down south in Wiltshire - dammit, I won't be expecting to see rhodies for another four weeks, maybe six, maybe longer! Even the daffodils are still only thinking about opening up. But my wife's hellebores are in full flow - how are yours, Scotia?

BJ

Our traditional hellebores are now in full bloom, and if you stoop down and lift their drooping heads they really are very attractive. But the real show stoppers are the new varieties which (I think) you mentioned last year. They keep their heads pointed upwards and they are extremely vigorous.

[tournesol]

We inherited a very early flowering Rhododendron called Christmas Cheer - planted in 1954 by the previous owner of our house who provided the identification.

We and the rhody are in Kent on a woodland margin on the north facing side of an exposed ridge which is just about the highest point in the county. Our temperatures are generally several degrees lower than the surrounding region. Our daffs arrive 2 weeks later and our autumn arrives 2 weeks earlier than the rest of Kent so our growing season is shorter. Snow lasts here far longer than the rest of the county and there have been several winters when I've had to use tyre chains to get out and have ended up leaving the chains on the car for weeks at a time.

The Christmas Cheer is completely hardy. It flowers ridiculously early. Some years it has flowers on Christmas day - hence the name. This year it's been in flower for about 2 or 3 weeks now and is giving us a particularly good display.

Not sure how to post a photo here, but if I can figure that out I will.

One thing that has surprised me is the rhody's response to TLC. I neglected it for years in the mistaken belief that little care was needed. It was sparse in both leaves and flowers and the leaves looked rather moth-eaten - covered in black gunge. Then it dawned on me that the location under the edge of the canopy of a mature chestnut might be depriving the rhody of food and water not to mention light. I cleared the leaf litter from underneath, fed it lavishly with special purpose rhody fertiliser, mulched it with well rotted manure and watered it copiously and repeatedly.

The results have been spectacular. It has put on about 12-18 inches in all directions in the past year, its tired old leaves have all been replaced by glossy new ones in great abundance and this year's flowers are fantastic. I am hoping that an annual repeat of the TLC regime will see the progress continue.

What is puzzling is that I visited a Specialist Rhody nursery last year and mentioned it to them. They showed me what they thought was an old specimen of Christmas Cheer but it was completely different from mine. So the id needs to be confirmed.

If you are not in a hurry, I'd be happy to try to propagate it by layering and you'd be welcome to have the result. But that's likely to take at least a year or two.

Regards

T

[scotia]

We inherited a very early flowering Rhododendron called Christmas Cheer - planted in 1954 by the previous owner of our house who provided the identification.

There is a very large (and old) Rhododendron in the village of Luss on Loch Lomond-side which is in-flower on Christmas Day. I don't know what its name is. And from a note about Inverewe Gardens (in NW Scotland): - "The collection was cultivated originally by Osgood Mackenzie in the 19th century to ensure a Rhododendron was in flower for every month of the year - even on Christmas Day".
I had a look at various sources about Christmas Cheer. It appears that it flowers (outside) around early March - but has in the past been forced in greenhouses to flower for Christmas. So I suspect your Rhododendron is rather more rare than is Christmas Cheer.

If you are not in a hurry, I'd be happy to try to propagate it by layering and you'd be welcome to have the result. But that's likely to take at least a year or two.

I'm in no hurry - except that I'm now in my mid seventies - however father and grandfather made it to 95.
I have had the patience to grow azaleas from seed - collected from numerous sources, and although most simply reverted to a yellow flower, their scent is superb.
I have never had any luck attempting to layer rhododendrons, but I think your Christmas-flowering Rhododendron deserves a try. If you are successful - let me know!

[tournesol]

The previous owner of our house/garden was adept at propagating rhodies by layering so I guess the soil and micro-climate might be conducive. I'll give it a try and let you know in a year or two.

PS how do I post a photograph here?

[scotia]

The previous owner of our house/garden was adept at propagating rhodies by layering so I guess the soil and micro-climate might be conducive. I'll give it a try and let you know in a year or two.

PS how do I post a photograph here?

If you have a the photograph as a computer file - e.g. as a jpg file, then you need to transfer it to some public repository which will supply a link, and this link can be placed in the Lemon Fool message. I use imgur as my (free) public repository. In my browser, I type imgur.com - and up comes their site. I accept their cookies, then click on New Post. This gets me a screen to which I drag my picture file. And on clicking, I can get a copy of the link. I usually paste this link into a text file - for future reference - but you can paste it directly into a Lemon Fool message. Usually I find that the link does not include the file extension - so I add it (e.g. .jpg). In the Lemon Fool I surround the link with the Img constructs (rather than the URL constructs) - and this displays the photograph. I tried it a few times in the Testing123 board, until I got it working.