MY SHRUBS 101 



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. Sesterianwn y 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 Fitzwilliam" is 

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

 lovely R.fragrantissimum 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, R. 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 



