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NOTES ON RHODODENDRONS AT BORDE HILL. DURING 1916. 
Contributed by Lieut.-Colonel Stephenson Clarke, C.B. 
During the very mild January, Rh. Dauricum bloomed better than I have 
seen it bloom here before, a plant of a deciduous variety as usual being far better 
than a nearly evergreen one in the same bed. Before the winter had ended or 
rather before it began in March, a species bought from J. Veitch & Sons, Coombe 
Wood, as Rhododendron Rirei bloomed for the first time, the individual flowers 
if not as large as those of sutchuenense, were larger than those of any other 
campanulate flowered Chinese Rhododendron that has flowered here, Davidi’s 
and Fargesi’s flowers being certainly smaller; the blossoms were, it must be 
confessed, of a colour approaching that of ponticum, still I thought it 
quite pretty, and it came at a season when there was little competition from 
other varieties. 
In the early spring, blooms were produced here for the first time by 
Rh. grande, and Rh. Els^e, the latter I believe a hybrid from the former, if so, 
it improved on its parent, as it produced ten large trusses for its first effort 
against one on grande. Another debutante was Rh. Hookeri, but on this 
plant only one truss opened, the other buds having dropped after the snow¬ 
storms in March. 
A plant of Rh. Fargesi and another of Rh. Davidi were covered with buds. 
Early in the winter, thinking to make certain that the flowers should open un¬ 
damaged by weather, I had them taken up and planted in tubs, and then removed 
to a cold orchard house, a disastrous error, as nearly all the buds dropped, while 
the few trusses on a Fargesi left in the open border, opened unblemished by 
weather ; at the same time that I moved these plants I potted up the sur\dvor 
of a pair of Rh. soulei, bought from J. Veitch & Sons. This plant opened 
one truss of flowers, but apparently the shift has disagreed with it, and while it 
was never a thriving Rhododendron, I fear that now it means dying like its fellow. 
Two or three Rh. aucklandi, under a north wall produced flowers uninjured by 
frost, which in this garden is unusual; we missed our usual crop of blossoms on the 
Edgworthi hybrids, fragrantissimum. Lady A. Fitzwilliam, etc., as they had 
failed to bud, and Rh. Maddeni, which had formed its buds well, dropped them 
after the March snowstorms, a considerable disappointment, as it is usually a 
great success on an east wall; generally opening its flowers after the other large 
flowered species are over. 
Some hybrids between Fortunei and campylocarpum were attacked by 
some rodents (probably field mice or voles), and badly gnawed at the collar, 
though not sufficiently deep to kill the plants ; the check induced two of them 
to flower prematurely; the flowers opened well and were of the colour of ivory. 
These were not the only rhododendrons injured in my garden by animals 
this year, the rabbits damaged several seedling arboreums, raised from a 
favourite rose coloured variety. These plants were a foot to 18 inches high, and 
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