ALL RHODODENDRONS

Large, upright evergreen shrubs with masses of beautiful flowers in mid-spring. This is an outstanding form selected from Branklyn Garden in Scotland and, according to my own notes, is “a dark blue form, better than ‘Electra’”. Our first offering. Easily grown in sun or shade and very floriferous. Great with white and pink flowered rhododendrons.

A much lower-growing and more compact version of augustinii with red-purple flowers much earlier in the blooming season. Rarely offered but easily grown in sun or light shade. Cutting-grown plants from a plant grown from wild collected seed.

Large and wide-spreading but upright evergreen shrubs or small trees. A fantastic species, one of the last to bloom here in the garden (late July or early August), with large leaves and showy white (rarely pink), highly fragrant flowers. Because this species occurs in a more climatically continental region of China than most other species with large leaves, it is more tolerant of heat and cold extremes. Grown from seed collected in a newly explored region far to the south of where this species has been recorded previously - a real surprise. Stunning foliage on this collection, the leaves are enormous!

Large and wide-spreading but upright evergreen shrubs or small trees. A fantastic species, one of the last to bloom here in the garden (late July or early August), with large leaves and showy white (rarely pink), highly fragrant flowers. Because this species occurs in a more climatically continental region of China than most other species with large leaves, it is more tolerant of heat and cold extremes. Grown from seed collected in a newly explored region far to the south of where this species has been recorded previously - a real surprise. Stunning foliage on this collection, the leaves are enormous!

An easy and floriferous deciduous azalea flowering in late spring and native to the southeastern US. The flowers range in color from yellow to orange-yellow. This is a selected clone with flowers strongly flushed with red suggesting some influence from canescens, a species with which it occurs in the wild. Easy in most regions and tolerant of hot and humid climates. Fine in sun or the woodland garden.  

A newly discovered (2011) and described species (way to go Jens Nielsen!) from the Yunnan/Myanmar frontier, this may be most closely related to R. hanceanum which is known from far to the north in Sichuan. This does not appear to be a large-growing shrub having been recorded as reaching only one to two meters in the wild. The remarkable foliage is quite unlike any other species that I have seen. It emerges reddish-purple with the appearance of being coated with a dull wax. The deep green and shiny leaves are bright glaucous-white beneath. The small, white, funnel-shaped flowers (early spring) are strongly marked with red spots and splashes - quite striking!  

A rare and unusual species with attractively brown-scaly foliage and stunning deep red-purple flowers in late spring. A rarely offered alpine species from the high Himalaya. Excellent drainage required. Best in morning sun or filtered shade.

(formerly Menziesia ciliicalyx 'Plum Drops') This is a slow-growing and choice, compact deciduous shrub with a somewhat horizontally branched and rounded habit. The small and rounded leaves are quite hairy and color up quite attractively in the autumn. The exquisite deep rose-purple flowers (mid-spring) are small and bell-shaped, hanging in showy clusters beneath the newly emerging foliage. Perfect in a woodland garden but also quite successful in full sun if well-watered. This is a stunning and very slow-growing species native to Japan. Rarely offered.