August 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
300 
exposed-to-tlie-sun situation of the garden was the cause 
of failure. Among other questions, I was asked what I 
thought of exposing Rhododendrons to the full sun on a 
poor bottom. I could not call to memory having ever 
seen fine Rhododendrons growing on chalk, but I had 
seen beautiful specimens of them growing and flowering 
luxuriantly on the steep braes of the Malvern hills, near 
Worcester, where they were as much exposed to the 
full mid-day sun, and on as steep ground as you could 
find on Arthur Seat, near Edinburgh, or the Peak of 
Teneriffe itself. 
It is a mistaken notion altogether, that because Rho¬ 
dodendrons will grow in the shade of trees better than 
most other evergreens, that shade is essential to their 
well-being, and that they will not flourish on steep 
banks and declivities facing the south, if the soil is 
suitable. Rhododendrons will grow on the steepest 
mountain ranges, as well a.s in the deepest shade in the 
lowland woods; but chalk or calcareous earths are 
unpalatable for the whole race in any situation what¬ 
ever, and it is almost the same with all those we call 
American plants, and yet the early spring Heath, called 
herbacea, will luxuriate in a chalk-pit, if it gets a little 
sandy soil to begin with. There is one situation, how¬ 
ever, and one only, where the more straggling and the 
more bare of leaves a Rhododendron is, the more it is 
in character, and that place is the “ wilderness,” or 
“ dingle,” in large places,—the rockery, or rock-garden, 
where such names are preferred for imitations of wild, 
broken scenery. 
Unless Sir Joseph Paxton will give us some imita¬ 
tions of the steep, rugged banks of the river which runs 
down from Clmtsworth and Bakewell, by the Peak of 
Derby, in the new Crystal Palace, he may grow the large 
Indian Rhododendrons in it, but they will not be in 
natural character. It is now just fifty years since the 
father of all the best and choicest flower-garden Rhodo¬ 
dendrons, Catawbiense, was first made known to the 
gardening world by a figure of it in Michaux’s North 
American Elora, published at Paris; and we have it on 
the best authority, in Mr. Hogg’s valuable memoir ( The 
Cottage Oanlener, 250), that the Rhododendron was 
first discovered on the top of the Great Roa, or Bald 
Mountain, near the source of the Catawba River, where 
nothing but the short; stunted grass could shade, even 
its roots, from a summer sun, of the strength of which 
we have little idea in England, so that we need not 
seek the shady side of a garden, much less the shade of 
trees, to plant Rhododendrons in. 
In cottage gardens, there is no plant more hardly 
dealt with than the Rhododendron. It is either stuffed 
in under trees and coarse-growing shrubs, where nothing 
else would grow, or, if there is a bed or clump set apart 
for Rhododendrons, the plants are sure to be so thickly 
planted, that in three or four years they run into each 
other, and get so much crowded, that all their bottom 
leaves and branches are smothered, and no flowers 
appear but on the very top of the plants. Now, it is 
proper and lawful enough to plant your new Rhodo¬ 
dendron bed, in the first instance, so that the lower 
branches will nearly meet, but then we must bear in 
mind that the branches of the two nearest Rhododen¬ 
drons must never actually meet or cross one another; 
and if they do so the first or second year after planting, 
the bed ought to be re-arranged. It is not, therefore, 
by the number of years, but by the growth of the plants, 
that we ought to be guided in keeping our Americans 
to their “ boundaries.” Still, as a general rule, it has 
been the practice for many years with the best gar¬ 
deners to take up their best Rhododendrons in beds 
every third or fourth year, so as to give them more 
room, that they might flower down to the very soil; and 
although they could be thus dealt with almost any time 
in the year, experience has determined that from the 
middle of August to the end of September is the best 
time to transplant them. But when new varieties are 
to be bought and taken from a distance, October will be 
time enough to begin them; and if they are not finished 
until March they will take no hurt. There are few 
gardens of any note in the country where Rhododen¬ 
drons are not grown, and as few in which real justice is 
done to the plants. They are so accommodating, that 
they will bloom, year after year, without care or trouble ; 
and on the principle of letting well alone, they are 
allowed to overcrowd each other, and run wild, as it 
were, and by the time they get out of bounds, one-half 
of them are not fit to be seen on being released, and the 
best part of the other half must be cut down, and a 
season lost before they look like themselves again. 
Within the last few years, growing the finer kinds of 
Rhododendrons received a great stimulus from the 
splendid collections of them sent by the great Bagshot 
growers for exhibition in London, first to a private 
place, then to the Botanic Society’s garden at the 
Regent’s Park, and last of all to the garden of the 
Horticultural Society at Chiswick, where, through some 
unfortunate mismanagement about the tents, they got 
to loggerheads about them, and so gave them up ; and 
they might as well give up their right ears, for there is 
no feature at all the exhibitions which takes so well 
with the public ; and you might as well think of taking 
the Lord Chancellor by the sleeve to a country dance, 
as to get hold of Mr. Waterer, or Mr. Staudish, on one 
of their show days—they are so overwhelmed with 
ladies, and other great folks, talking about and pricing 
their beautiful plants. That very wet day, in June, 1 
had the best luck I ever had, in finding these great 
growers resting on their oars, but dripping wet, under 
the great tent at “ the Park; ” and, wet as it was, we 
talked ourselves dry over the “fields and oceans” of 
beautiful Rhododendrons. It was quite- a feast to me, 
who never saw such a sight before. I contrived to 
make some few notes, but I was not at all satisfied with 
them, and I waited till the July show, determining to 
book as much as I could; and then, only one of the 
parties, Mr. John Waterer, could find time to go round 
with me, and he was so pulled about by this or that 
customer, all the time, that I must claim the value 
of my notes myself, and if there is anything wrong in 
them I must also take the blame. 
I have said already, that I likened some of the tall 
standard Rhododendrons to scarlet Nonsuch apple-trees, 
in ripe fruit, seen at a distance. Many of these stand¬ 
ards are really magnificent specimens, and, I should 
think, from thirty to forty years old, judging from what 
Mr. Staudish told me. He said he was only a young 
beginner, in comparison to Mr. Waterer, and could not 
show such standards for some years to come; and yet 
he has been growing them these fifteen years, and more. 
There is one kind, called Roseum elegans, and whether 
it is that it forms a standard faster and easier than 1 
others, or that people are fonder of it, I did not enquire, 
but I could see two of it to one of any other kind, all 
over, or rather under the tent. The original species, 
Catawbiense, was there in fine standards, and as low as 
5s. to 7s. Cd. each ; but the general run of prices is 
from a guinea to 42s., for good, handsome plants. There 
were many there, however, fully worth ten guineas 
a piece ; and, for a huge bush specimen, the finest anti 
the best there, according to my fancy, is one called 
Lady Eleanor Cathcart. This has a clear rose-coloured 
flower, with brown spots at the bottom of the upper 
petals, and flowers in the middle of the Rhododendron 
season ; the price of moderate-sized plants of it is 31s. Gd. 
One called Waterer s Celcbrandum is the same price, 
and is the very best late crimson kind in cultivation, 
and is quite hardy. Blandyanum and The Grand Arab 
are the two next best crimsons; small plants of each 
