Douglas Justice's May blog has been up for a week at May in the Garden 2024 - UBC Botanical Garden. As usual, there are good photos in the blog. Here are a few photos of plants featured from the subsection Fortunea. I tried to capture the conspicuous glands on the flower stalks of Rhododendron maoerense, but then forgot to get a habit photo. Rhododendron qiaojiaense was only named in 2016. Douglas kindly provided the pronunciation. Of the two small plants next to each other, one has only buds, but the other's flowers are almost open. Here is Rhododendron fortunei 'Sir Charles Butler'. Another R. fortunei we found is Rhododendron fortunei subsp. discolor Houlstonii Group. The blog also featured several plants in the Azalea Glade, where there are lots of flowers now. Here is Rhododendron oreotrephes.
LOTS of rhododendrons in bloom didn't make it into the blog. Here's Rhododendron orbiculare subsp. orbiculare, also in subsection Fortunea. I have to do this now in alphabetical order or I'll never find them all. Rhododendron anwheiense Rhododendron argyrophyllum subsp. argyrophyllum, some pink, some white. Rhododendron argyrophyllum subsp. nankingense 'Chinese Silver'. I can't distinguish this from the previous one. Rhododendron longipes, which is in the subsection Argyrophylla.
I think the rhododendrons in flower up till now have not had indumentum on mature leaves, and have not had fuzzy new leaves, but that's just my impression, which could be totally off the wall. But I was pretty excited about the leaves on this Rhododendron coeloneurum. It's well finished blooming now. I think we found the last flower. Out of alphabetical order, here is another on which we liked the leaves - Rhododendron sinofalconeri. This was labelled the same, but seemed to have bigger, tougher flowers. That's all for tonight. There will be more.
Wild rhododendron species don't have clonal uniformity of course. Unless a single clone is what is being encountered in cultivated settings.
Oops - Rhododendron decorum subsp. decorum was mentioned in the blog, is in subsection Fortunea, and R. quaojaense (another opportunity to practice pronouncing this) is a close relative. Here's another in subsection Fortunea, Rhododendron 'Lackamas Cream'. I see some different stories about its parents, but they're all in that subsection. I liked its creamy colour, which is not showing up in my photos. Rhododendron degronianum subsp. heptamerum: The first photo here has a label Rhododendron degronianum subsp. yakushimanum, but I see in Garden Explorer that that is now a synonym for R. yakushimanum, which is what the label says for the others here. Here is Rhododendron hypoglaucum 'Heane Wood', which now I find is a close relative of R. argyrophyllum.
Here are a few deciduous azaleas from the Carolinian Garden. Rhododendron canescens Rhododendron prinophyllum - in sun and in shade Rhododendron vaseyi, with some colour variations.
