I know I promised not to post every rhododendron in Stanley Park, but there are several of these tree-sized plants along the golf course fence, and they're very showy with their dark pink buds and almost white flowers. I think they're a Rhododendron fortunei x of some sort, and I don't need to know what sort. It's just that I don't think I've ID'd a rhody correctly yet, so I don't see any reason to think I've got this one. One of this name is listed in the Park Board's "50 Rhododendrons of Interest" in that garden. I don't know about the "faint watermelon bubble gum scent", but something was fragrant in the area. I think I captured a leaf-back in the last photo. No evident splotches on the flowers.
I'm inclined to think that the flowers are a little too deep a pink I the bud to be fortunei itself. The fortunei hybrid ID is probably correct but there are so many of them that are very similar to each other, especially among the Loderi hybrids, that it's hard to say exactly which it might be just by looking at a photo. If I had choose a likely candidate it would be 'Miss Josephine Firth'.
Thanks, Goeff. Just fortunei hybrid is fine. I was trying to look up where Loderi fit, as I've seen the term and had Loderi hybrids pointed out to me, but didn't understand what it meant when you included that in your reply. On the way, I got to some pages I'd like to keep track of, so I'm listing them below. I didn't actually get my answer. Well, maybe. I see subsection Fortunea and 'Loderi Group' cultivar group. So those are hybrids in the Fortunea subsection made by Sir Edmund Loder? Or he specialized in large-flowered rhododendrons, many but not all of which are in the subsection Fortunea? It seems some but not all of them are fortunei hybrids. You recognized that it's in the 'Loderi Group' because you know it, or because of the large flowers? ----------------------------------- hirsutum.info - A Virtual Arboretum: all about rhododendrons, azaleas, azaleodendrons and vireyas: Here's a page of Loder cultivars/hybrids. rhodyman.net - Henning's Rhododendron and Azalea Pages: Elepidotes, with lots of links at the bottom of the page. I made myself stop at North American Rhodos.
I recognized it because I know it, which really means by the difference in coloration between buds and flowers combined with the colour and shape of the leaf and the size of the plant. Also, although the picture didn't show any, the Loderi cultivars are very prone to necrotic ring marks on the leaves, which can help with identification. All of the cultivars in the original Loderi grex are griffithianum x fortunei hybrids. However, later breeders such as Stead made the same or similar crosses and got similar results. 'Lalique' ( http://www.photosbotanical.com/img18033.htm ) and 'Ilam Pearl' ( http://www.photosbotanical.com/img14656.htm ), for example, are very Loderi-like but aren't listed as Loderi cultivars as they're not from the original cross. Loder also raised other types of rhododendrons. Not all of his hybrids are Loderi types.
Oversize appearance to corolla imparted by R. griffithianum apparent in these pictures. Will be one of the older clones produced by Loder in England or if there are more recent selections of similar appearance around, then maybe one of those. The old English queens are often spotty these days, as well as being prone to the same foliage mildew as many other rhododendrons. So although the flowers remain sumptuous the foliage aspect is often dreadful. Down here there are what I am given to understand are unselected seedlings around planted as 'Loderi' that resemble the R. fortunei parent. Perhaps part of the time these have been actual examples of the pure species in the group being misidentified as 'Loderi' seedlings. As is often the case with wild species R. fortunei and relations vary and are distinguished from one another by specific anatomical features - and not by general characters such as color of corolla.
