HYBRID RHODODENDRONS. 



271 



XXVIII. — A Chapter in the History of Hybrid Rhododen- 

 drons. By Standish and Noble, Nursery men y Bagshot, Surrey. 

 (Communicated September 10, 1850.) 



Every lover of flowers is charmed with the appearance of 

 Rhododendron arboreum. Its symmetrical trusses of the 

 richest crimson are objects which attract the most ordinary 

 observer, and the connoisseur amongst plants is equally delighted 

 with them. But on account of the protection of a conservatory 

 being necessary during a considerable portion of the year to 

 ensure the production of these beauties, comparatively few who 

 possess gardens can enjoy this fine plant in perfection. From 

 this circumstance an early desire evinced itself in the gardening 

 community to procure hybrids between it and the hardier 

 American kinds, but the results of such crosses, although much 

 was accomplished, were not of a satisfactory nature. It is true 

 many beautiful hybrids were produced, among which we may 

 mention Russellianum and Altaclarense, presenting a richness of 

 colour almost equal to their Indian parent, but. they did not 

 inherit sufficiently the hardy constitution of the American. 

 Their tendency to bloom so early in the year, generally from the 

 latter part of February to that of April, invariably exposed them 

 to cutting winds and severe frosts, so prevalent in this climate 

 at that season. And again, the length of time required to bring 

 them into a blooming condition was a severe tax upon the 

 patience of the cultivator, from ten to twelve years being occu- 

 pied in this probationary state. We have known many instances 

 where hybrids of the character we are describing have been full 

 twenty years old before the anxious eye has been gratified with 

 a flower; and often, when the production of flower buds had 

 been effected, and the promise of abundant bloom was about to 

 be realised, an unfavourable season has prostrated all hopes of 

 seeing the flowers in anything like perfection, if at all.* 

 Knowing that the many disappointments of this character were 

 exercising a retrograde movement in the taste for hybrid Rho- 

 dodendrons as they were then constituted, about twelve years 

 ago we commenced a series of " crossings," with the view of 

 remedying the great defects so apparent in the earliness of bloom- 

 ing and susceptibility to frost. In this we have been perfectly 

 successful. By crossing the American species again by the first 



* At Highclere, the seat of the Earl of Carnarvon, are large masses of 

 Ehododendron Altaclarense and Eussellianum, 10 to 12 feet in height, 

 which for the last two seasons were well covered with flower buds. Had 

 the weather been favourable, they would have formed magnificent objects ; 

 but unfortunately this was not the case, and the whole were completely 

 destroyed by the frosts. 



VOL. V. U 



