Hardy Rhododendrons, and tJicir CitlUire. 327 



stocks, and some varieties the wood of which we wanted, and for which we 

 could afford to wait. 



This element of time is very important. In our experience, if a nursery- 

 man were to import a thousand grafted plants, he could cut no grafts till 

 the third year : he might then obtain two and perhaps three thousand grafts, 

 and it would perhaps be ten years before he could safely sell his propaga- 

 tion. This does not suit the rapidity of American movement. 



The success of an importation, even after several years, is based upon 

 the supposition that all the sorts imported are perfectly hardy here when 

 once established ; but the multitude of deaJ plants found everj'where 

 prove that this is not the case. 



The only rhododendrons which are reliable in this climate, where the 

 thermometer is sometimes fourteen degrees below zero, are those which 

 approach as nearly as possible to the pure Catawbiense. The Ponticum 

 has its bloom-buds uniformly killed, and the Arboreum is adapted only to 

 the greenhouse. Now, in England, France, and Belgium, the Ponticum 

 is hardy ; and in some parts of France, and perhaps in Southern England 

 also, the Arboreum. 



Varieties, therefore, showing strongly-marked Ponticum blood, are perfect- 

 ly satisfactory to European purchasers, while here .at the North they are 

 almost worthless. Every winter gives them a blow, until finally they die 

 outright. If an American customer orders from Europe a hundred or a 

 thousand rhododendrons of assorted kinds, the grower there will of course 

 send him what he thinks best, and in entire good faith ; but those best 

 plants there prove entirely worthless here. 



We have imported for the last ten years all the best foreign sorts, and 

 our number of varieties is now something over two hundred and fifty ; yet, 

 of these, scarcely twenty are such as we can recommend for culture in 

 northern latitudes. Despairing of finding sorts abroad which would bear 

 our climate, we have given our attention to seedlings, and have been able 

 to produce a number of entirely reliable hardiness, and including every 

 color, from the most brilliant scarlet to pink, mauve, blue, purple, and white. 

 These will not be in the market for several years ; and we are now confin- 

 ing our culture to a select list of well-tried sorts. Of these, we may safely 

 name the following twelve as hardy beyond question. They grow as surely 



