MY SHRUBS loi 



is tender, and retreats from its place in a peat bed when October 

 comes. The beauty of the new leaves alone makes this plant a 

 treasure. They are a wondrous rich old-rose colour, and retain 

 their red veins until mature. The flower is white and fragrant, 

 but my plant, though healthy enough, has made no blossom yet. 

 It is a shy bloomer even in expert hands. R, calophyllum, another 

 Bhotan species, also withdraws from the open during autumn, 

 though in Cornish gardens it flourishes in sheltered glades. This 

 is a grand rhododendron with lovely foliage, as the name implies. 

 The white blossom is very large and fragrant - with three to five 

 trumpets on the truss. The species attains to no great size, and 

 is easily managed in a pot. 



R. Sesterianum, a hybrid, is very splendid ; but the buds 

 should have protection against frost and the whole plant be given 

 a snug corner. The mixture of rosy red and white make the 

 fragrant trusses a great joy in May. The flower is among the 

 largest of all. That fine hybrid, " Lady Alice Fitzwilliamy^ is 

 only a little less distinguished, and blooms more freely. The 

 lovely R. jragrantissimum also resembles these, but is more tender, 

 and should winter in a cold house. R, yunnanense, a noble and 

 hardy Chinese species, has large flowers two inches across, white 

 spotted crimson, or lavender and brown. R, formosum is of 

 Bhotan, and tender — a fine species still rare in cultivation. 



Of dwarf varieties, JR. racemosum^ another Yunnan species, is a 

 neat deciduous shrub, whose rosy flowers are among the earliest 

 to appear ; R, kamtschaticum, also deciduous, is but a few inches 

 high, and demands a cool, damp, shady corner in peat. Its little 

 solitary flowers are a bright purple, as large as a kalmia bloom, 

 and it is rather hard to please. This year one fine blossom has 



