I started the April 2021 thread with Rhododendron pachytrichum flowers. Well, it wins the prize for new leaves. Are these great or what?! Here's another contender for great new hairy leaves and stems, Rhododendron argipeplum. It's right next to a R. barbatum, which has similar red flowers (which are similarly finished now), so I could concentrate on how the bark, hairs and leaves differ. We get nice hairy stems on Rhododendron selense subsp. dasycladum, and nice flowers too.
Here is Rhododendron maculiferum, another pink with red buds. R. primuliflorum is also pink with red buds. It's pretty different, though.
I walked right by this Rhododendron ambiguum last week, and it's what I came to see. Fortunately I remembered what it was growing near, and when I saw that, I went back. So then I was able to recognize it in Stanley Park. Here is Rhododendron decorum subsp. decorum, a little past its prime. The leaves on these Rhododendron cinnabarinum always looks larger to me and less smooth than what I expect, so I was pleased to see the label on this red one I've been posting. I've been looking unsuccessfully for an orange one in Stanley Park. The Rhododendron Cornubia Group is developing its new leaves and showing the red bud scales, not as vibrant as the one in Stanley Park, but maybe that will change, or I have to allow for some variation with its being a Group.
I finally made it over to the Carolinian Garden. I've been trying to find Rhododendron atlanticum, which is not supposed to be in this garden, but sometimes I find things that are not on any list. I was sure I'd found it when I saw all these R. canescens, but fortunately, they had labels. If I had seen these in Stanley Park where my brochure said they were, for sure I'd have thought they were the R. atlanticum I was looking for. There are supposed to be differences, but I have to increase my vocabulary to understand the writeup I found. Well, the white ones here have a yellow blotch, and R. atlanticum is supposed to have no blotch. Why don't we have R. atlanticum? Anyway, here are R. canescens. Here is Rhododendron minus var. minus. And Rhododendron prinophyllum.
Back to new leaves, these on May 26. Here is Rhododendron pachysanthum. Rhododendron kesangiae. The leaf that happened to be split shows nice and clearly how thick the indumentum is.
I posted a Rhododendron decorum subsp. decorum above, and I've been trying assure myself I can recognize this species, so I will add these R. decorum here, subspecies not on the one label I saw, but Garden Explorer calls it R. decorum subsp. cordatum. This is in plot 3AD8, on the south side of Lower Asian Way. Across the path on the north side are two trees from the same accession, but they look different to me from the one across the path and from each other, though I didn't really capture any good identifying details. The first photo has both trees; the others are the tree in the middle of that photo. Here is the tree on the left, with larger everything.
