COJIPARATITE HARDINESS. 39 



CHAPTER IV. 



COMPARATIVE HARDINESS. 



'"T^HE hardiness of Rhododendrons is a very diffi- 

 -*- cult subject to treat. 



Every cultivator will express a different opinion , 

 and -while on some few varieties all will agree, upon 

 the greater number no two will form the same opin- 

 ion. The reason is simply that we are upon the 

 northern limit of hardiness for most kinds, and 

 the difference of a few degrees in the range of tlie 

 mercury is life or death to the plant. 



Yet, strange as it may seem, some varieties, which 

 we find marked as tender in English catalogues, prove 

 hardy in the latitude of Boston. 



An instance of this is the fine variety, " President 

 Van den Hecke," the flowers -of which are blush 

 white, thickly spotted with chocolate, which has 

 witli us stood the last three winters uninjured, both 

 in leaf and bud. 



The hardest winters for Rhododendrons are those 

 when there is but little snow, when the mercury falls 

 below zero. The greater number of Gatawbiense 

 varieties will stand uninjured where the thermometer 

 occasionally falls to zero ; but a long continuance 

 of zero weather is fatal to very many kinds. Snow 

 is a great protection: we repeatedly find plants 



