68o RHODODENDRON. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. RHODODENDRON. 



white, pink, or mauve coloured flowers, 

 finely waved around the edges of the 

 petals. R. auriculatum, a fine low 

 tree of 10 to 30 feet, with beautiful 

 white or rosy flowers, perhaps finer 

 than in any other Chinese kind. They 

 are funnel-shaped, 3 inches deep and 

 4^ inches across the mouth ; the leaves 

 leathery and 4 to 9 inches long. R. 

 ciliicalyx is another charming plant 

 with even larger white flowers flushed 

 with rose, but it is untried as to 

 hardiness. R. Delavayi, with dark red 

 flowers, comes very near the Himalayan 

 R. arboreum. R. Fortunei, though an 

 old kind, is still- rare, and one of the 

 best. It is the most fragrant of true 

 Rhododendrons, the flowers composed 

 of finely crisped petals, and clear pale 

 rose fading to white. Some garden 

 crosses have lately come from this 

 kind, which promises to give us a very 

 useful early-flowering group for gar- 

 dens. R. lacteum, grown already to a 

 fine size at Kilmacurragh, Ireland, 

 comes near the Indian R. Falconeri, 

 with trusses of white bell - shaped 

 flowers 2 inches across. Its leaves are 

 a foot long, covered beneath with a 

 beautiful felt, silvery - white at first, 

 turning brown with exposure. R. 

 racemosum is the most useful and 

 distinct of these new kinds, growing 

 without any trouble, and readily 

 increased. It makes a low shrub, well 

 adapted to the rock garden, growing 

 slowly, needing little root room, and 

 flowering freely from a height of only 

 a few inches. The white or pale rosy 

 flowers are not large, but instead of 

 confined as in other Rhododendrons 

 to a rounded truss at the tips of the 

 shoots, here they also appear all along 

 the shoots as clusters from the leaf- 

 axils, so that in April each branch is | 

 transformed into a raceme of flowers. 

 R. rubiginosum, a scarce kind which has 

 proved fully hardy at Kew, its flowers 

 bright rose spotted with crimson. It 

 flowers in late April or May, and 

 is easily increased from home - saved 

 seeds. R. scabrifolium is a pretty 

 little plant, never growing high, with 

 rosy flowers and hairy leaves and 

 stems. R. vunnanense, one of the 

 best, is a beautiful hardy kind of slender 

 open growth, doing best in a sheltered 

 spot, where it blooms in May. The | 

 trusses are small but exceedingly 

 graceful, composed of flowers 2 inches 

 or so across, white or rosy-lilac, freely 

 spotted with dark red on the upper 

 petals. 



LAYERING RHODODENDRONS. The 



importance of getting the many beau- 

 tiful Rhododendrons hardy in our 

 country from layers is great. The 

 first garden in which I have seen the 

 practice well carried out was at 

 Sheffield Park, in Sussex, by Mr A. G. 

 Soames, who writes : 



Layering of Rhododendrons is a simple 

 affair. A shoot of the current season's 

 growth is cut about half through, and 

 we put a little wedge of wood in to keep 

 the cut effective, though I do not know 

 that this is necessary. The cut shoot 

 is then pegged firmly into the soil and 

 a couple of inches or so of soil are placed 

 over the pegged down portion. In 

 two years we have a plant on its own 

 roots. When I plant Rhododendrons 

 I always layer shoots all round, and have 

 some fine bushy plants. The shoots from 

 the layered branches always, I find, make 

 far more vigorous growth than the 

 main portion of the plant docs. I 

 started doing this some years ago, and 

 it proved so satisfactory that we never 

 think of planting Rhododrendrons with- 

 out at the same time layering them now. 



The usual time is September or March, 

 or October or April, which coincides 

 with the right time for moving Rhodo- 

 dendrons. It also has the advantage of 

 keeping the plants firm, and by getting 

 down the outside branches a canopy from 

 the sun is sooner arrived at, which makes 

 a lot of difference in growth. 



Of the very many Rhododendrons 

 raised at Knaphill Nurseries, Mr A. 

 Waterer tells me the best of them are 

 the following: Album elegans, blush, 

 changing to white ; Atrosangiiineum, 

 intense blood-red, one of the hardiest ; 

 B. de Bruin, rich scarlet ; Caractacus, 

 purplish - crimson, splendid truss ; 

 Charles Dickens, dark scarlet, fine 

 habit ; Charles S. Sargent, bright 

 scarlet, fine truss ; Doncaster, bright- 

 est of scarlets ; Edward S. Rand, rich 

 scarlet ; F. L. Ames, rosy-pink, light 

 centre, large truss ; G. O. Sims, the 

 brightest of scarlets ; G. B. Simpson, 

 purplish-blue, distinct colour ; Gari- 

 baldi, bright salmon, distinct ; H. H. 

 Hunnewell, rich crimson, large truss ; 

 H. W. Sargent, crimson, very large 

 truss ; Kettledrum, purplish-crimson, 

 free-blooming ; Lady Armstrong, pale 

 rose, spotted ; Lady Clementina Mit- 

 ford, peach colour, deeper margin ; 

 Lady de Rothschild, blush spotted, 

 fine truss ; Lady Grey Egerton, silvery 

 blush, fine truss ; Marchioness of 

 Lansdowne, pale rose, with an intense 

 black spot; Martin Hope Sutton, 

 scarlet, richly marked, distinct ; Max- 

 well T. Masters, rosy-crimson, fine 



