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NOTES ON RHODODENDRONS AT ROSTREVOR HOUSE, CO. DOWN. 
Contributed by Lieut.-Colonel Sir John Ross of Bladensburg, K.C.B. 
I regret I did not understand that the first set of notes were to be sent to the 
Rhododendron Society at the end of last year. I imagined they were not due 
till the end of this year, and it is only now that I have found out my mistake. 
I regret it the more, since not only have I deprived myself of the pleasure of 
preparing these notes in time, but also because it is not easy to put something 
hastily together that may be of interest to the members, and it is impossible to 
give an account of any garden recently visited, except my own. These notes 
will therefore, I fear, be of little value. 
This place is well sheltered, and the soil is favourable to the cultivation of all 
trees and shrubs, and as it contains no trace of lime it is well adapted to 
Rhododendrons. Generally speaking we enjoy a mild winter and often have no 
more than four to six degrees of frost, and then only for quite short periods. 
We nearly always have however disagreeable spring frosts, and these are too 
often destructive and troublesome. I always fear the weather of March and April 
more than that of the dead of winter, and it is then that the plants seem to suffer 
most. Our summers are never very hot, and our autumns are really fine and 
enjoyable, and this helps to ripen the year’s growth satisfactorily. But the year 
1916 was not a good one, and was an exception to our usual conditions. We had 
a cold summer, a very wet and miserable autumn, and now a most severe winter, 
nothing like it I think since 1894-95. In consequence, we have little flower now, 
the winter rhododendrons have no chance of showing their beauty. Rh. 
MUCRONULATUM pushes out an occasional bloom when the weather permits, cmd 
Rh. nobleanum is so pinched and starved that it only produces little points of 
red colour, looking more like undeveloped rose buds than trusses of rhododendron 
flower. Hamamelis mollis is one of the few plants that bravely exhibits its 
bloom despite the cold and the inclement weather. 
Notwithstanding the unfavourable conditions prevailing, the rhododendrons 
have all done fairly well, and fortunately I have lost none. Rh. barbatum, 
ciLiiCALYX, Dalhousi^e, Edgeworthii, lanatum, etc., reputed somewhat 
tender in some places, have up to now shown no signs of distress. I had Rh. 
Nuttallii out for some years, but as it was not growing satisfactorily, we 
luckily brought it in and put it in a large pot, and it has not been subjected to 
the present frost. I observed that some of the rhododendrons which flowered 
well in former years, and which appear to be in perfect health, did not flower 
properly or at all, last season. Among them I may mention Rh. intricatum, 
Keiskei, Ririei, Souliei, and spinuliferum, also I think Rh. Thomsoni 
and RUBiGiNOSUM, which is usually smothered in bloom. I observed the same 
thing with a fine specimen of Leptospermum Nicholi, now some ten feet high, 
and which is always covered with red, giving the impression, if looked at from 
a distance, as if it were painted with bullock’s blood. But, generally speaking, 
everything else flowered in the usual way, and perhaps Rh. Keysii, micran- 
THUM, Roylei and yunnanense showed more bloom than in ordinary’ 3 ^ears. 
36 
