98 MY SHRUBS 
With due solemnity we now approach Rhododendron, the Rose 
Bay, king of all flowering shrubs, at once the joy and despair of 
the small shrub-grower. While clinging as ever to the species, 
one must grant that skilled hybridizers have done splendid work 
upon this august genus. By mixing fresh blood with the monarchs 
of the race, they produce plants which only yield a little in distinction 
to the species from the Himalayas, while flowering considerably 
later, and so bringing their bud uninjured through the early months 
of spring. The greater number of rhododendrons from India 
are hardy ; but their early flowering habit means that the expanding 
truss is exposed to our coldest temperatures at its most critical 
period of development, and so we lose our bloom, though the 
shrubs do not suffer. Yet it is said that there are finer Himalayan 
thododendrons in Ireland than on the Himalayas, so all whose 
fate calls them to dwell in the West Country within salutation of 
the sea may attempt this supreme manifestation of the shrub. 
But patience is essential. ‘Though fine flowering pieces of the great 
hybrids can generally be secured from the best growers, with the 
species it is different, and choice old china is not so rare as fine 
specimens of the nobler rhododendrons in search of a new home. 
The race ascends from the tiniest shrublet, in R. Ramtschaticum, 
to a tree, where R. arboreum towers splashed with spring crimson, 
and good specimens of the hardy Pontic hybrids are of course 
within all men’s reach; but if your space is limited and your 
patience without limit, then get the best at once, give them half 
shade and shelter, and, above all things, remember that as surface 
rooters they are most thirsty shrubs, and need ample watering in 
dry weather. A spraying of the foliage with water is also much 
to be advised after fierce sunshine. 
