Upon reading Douglas Justice's June in the Garden article, I became interested in Rhododendron nakaharae as a ground cover. I decided to see if I could buy one; but a Web search turned up only one nursery in Canada that carried it: Dinter Nursery near Duncan, Vancouver Island. However, they do not ship plants outside of the southern island; so, I wonder if any forum member is aware of a source in the Lower Mainland or anywhere in Canada that will ship to this area.
I would be willing to help you acquire a R. nakaharae. I live about an hour's drive from Dinter's; go there only once or twice a year but could maybe co-ordinate something. It doesn't appear on their current availability list. I visit Burnaby once or twice a year too where family members still live. We could talk more about how to arrange this in a private conversation.
Such a coincidence! Many people in my alpine garden club grow Rhododendron 'Pink Pancake' which is blooming now. I sent them a photo today of a tiny cutting I took last fall that has already produced a flower, poor thing! Only one inch tall. Looking up more about @vitog 's mention of R. nakaharae, it seems that it is a parent of 'Pink Pancake'. Here is what Polly Hill had to say about it. (https://holdenfg.org/nature-profiles/evergreen-azalea-pink-pancake/) "Polly Hill was an exceptional plantswoman from Martha’s Vineyard. Many of Polly’s azaleas are interspecific hybrids involving an incredibly compact azalea from Taiwan called Rhododendron nakaharae. ‘Pink Pancake’ is a flat grower, described by Polly herself as the flattest of her R. nakaharae hybrids. Blooms about a month later than your typical evergreen azalea. Goes well with syrup." So, Vito, if you want to settle for 'Pink Pancake', I think I could get a few cuttings for you.
I live in Duncan, and I checked Dinter's website. No listing at present. However, I did find this on your side of the water Rhododendron (azalea) nakaharae 1G – Local Roots Farm Market (localrootsbc.ca) so you might want to give them a call.
@Margot, thanks for the offers. I'll keep 'Pink Pancake' in mind; I just wonder if it would be as good as or better than R. nakaharae as a ground cover. @JenD, thanks for the research. I just did a quick Google search and found Local Roots as the first result, which is surprising, since I normally use Google for my searches. However, I've been experimenting with some AI search engines; and in this case, I must have skipped the Google search. I tried Google's Gemini, and it found Dinter but nothing else. I also tried Microsoft's Copilot, and it found nothing at all. That tells me that current AI search engines are not to be relied upon. However, I have found them to be occasionally useful in the past.
@vitog, I posted three photos of R. nakaharae, from UBCBG, buds with just one open flower, at June 2024 in the garden - more rhododendrons | UBC Botanical Garden Forums. I am surprised to see this called a ground cover, but maybe the term is used more widely than for what I think of as ground covers. I don't know colour names, have no idea if this is vermillion or cadmium-red, but this specimen is a very hot exciting colour. See the thread for the other two photos.
Thanks, Wendy. After looking at your photos along with Google images and reading some more about R. nakaharae, I suspect that this azalea might need more sunshine than I can give it in order to produce an abundance of flowers. The preferred habitat seems to be sunny or lightly shaded, and I can only provide a mostly shady location. I might get one anyway the next time I'm travelling near Squamish, where Local Roots is located.
