4i8 



TREES AND SHRUBS 



Name. 



Rhododendron 

 Hardy Hybrid 



Country or 



Origin and 



Natural Order. 



Ericacese 



Colour 



AND 



Season. 



General Remarks. 



family may be divided into 

 two great sections, deciduous 

 and evergreen. The ever- 

 green section consists of a 

 large number of species, 

 either quite hardy or tender, 

 the tender ones being repre- 

 sented by such beautiful 

 flowers as R. griffithianum, 

 Edgeworthi, R. Dalhousi^, 

 R. Nuttalli, the Malayan 

 species, &c. With the ex- 

 ception of R. ponticum true 

 species are seldom met 

 with outdoors, except in 

 gardens where collections 

 are formed, or in the south- 

 west countries. The scarcity 

 of species is doubtless due 

 to many of the hybrids 

 being much hardier, and 

 begin to flower and grow at 

 a later time of the year. Al- 

 though some of them will 

 stand severe frost in mid- 

 winter without injury, 

 growth beginning early in 

 the year, the young leaves 

 and shoots get considerably 

 injured by the late spring 

 frosts, and flowers when open 

 in March are also destroyed 

 or much spoilt. In Cornwall, 

 South Wales, and parts of 

 Ireland, huge specimens of 

 R. arboreum, barbatum, 

 grande, Falconeri, griffith- 

 ianum, and others may be 

 seen in full vigoiu-, but all 

 have to receive protection 

 from the north. Although 

 these species cannot be grown 

 successfully outdoors in most 

 parts of the country, the 

 hybridist knows their value. 

 Through crossing them with 

 hardier and later growing 

 and flowering species many 

 beautiful hybrids have been 

 raised. Hardy evergreen 

 hybrid Rhododendrons may 

 be divided into several groups 

 according to parentage. Of 

 these groups by far the most 

 familiar is the one that has 

 originated through the cross- 

 ing and intercrossing of the 

 Himalayan R. arboreum 

 with the American R. cataw- 

 biense, the Caucasian species 

 R. caucasicum, or the Euro- 



