8o Rhododendro7t Expenence. 



The summer of 1868 was peculiarly favorable to all " American plants :" 

 there was enough rain to enable them to make strong growth, and the au- 

 tumn was dry enough for all young wood to be fully ripened. The plants 

 generally set bloom well, and at the beginning of November could not 

 have looked better. They even seemed in condition to stand another 

 severe winter ; and we could not but say. If we can only have a moderately 

 mild winter, our rhododendron culture is a success. The winter of 1868-69 

 passed : little snow, no cutting winds, rather an even temperature, the ther- 

 mometer at Glen Ridge showing for its lowest point three degrees above 

 zero, and nowhere in the vicinity of Boston falling to more than two de- 

 grees below. 



March was a calmer month than usual, and April was as near perfect as 

 a month of disappointed expectations (a fair description, in fact, of our 

 New-England spring) can be. In fact, we had nothing to complain of in 

 the weather, winter or spring. What is the result ? Kalmias more cut up, 

 if possible, than the preceding year ; azaleas badly injured ; rhododendrons 

 which had stood for years wholly killed, and andromedas almost denuded 

 of foliage. 



Thus far, the facts ; now, the causes. And here we are met by such a 

 mass of conflicting evidence, that we must confess ourselves wholly at a loss 

 to frame theories. 



One may say, the severity of the preceding winter weakened the vitality 

 of the plants. We have no reason to suppose this ; for the plants were 

 generally never in better condition to stand the winter than in the autumn 

 of 1868. All wood was fully ripened; there was no weak, sickly growth; 

 and the ground was in as good a condition as could be wished all through 

 the season. 



Again : it was the want of the protection of the snow. Not so, as ixx 

 as our experience goes ; for many of our largest rhododendrons were killed 

 to the ground, — plants so large that for years the snow had never covered 

 them : and we know of plants in our vicinity, twelve feet high, which had 

 stood uninjured and unprotected for at least twelve years, being killed to 

 the ground. 



And again : the lot of plants that suffered most with us was on a north- 

 ern hillside, where a snowdrift covered them most of the winter. Perhaps 



