TEte IBlfjoliotieniJron ^ocietp BoUi. 
RHODODENDRONS AT PENLLERGAER, SWANSEA. 
Contributed by Sir John Llewellyn, Bart. 
From the middle of January to the middle of February, 1917, the weather 
in South Wales was exceptionally severe, and during most of that time the 
easterly wind blew a blizzard, with much snow and frost, which attained a 
maximum of twenty-eight degrees early in February. 
Many conifers were scorched quite brown on the eastern side, many semi¬ 
hardy or tender shrubs such as veronicas, myrtles and some bamboos were 
killed or severely injured, but the Rhododendrons and Azaleas came through 
the winter far better than I expected. 
The foliage of some of the more exposed plants was torn off by the violence of 
the wind, but the actual injury by frost to the plants was certainly less than was 
the case in November, 1893, when the sap and young wood was less matured than 
it was in January, 1917. 
My plants of Rhododendron grande have suffered, though I think they 
will recover, while such species as barbatum, Thomsonii, ochraceum, 
campanulatum, Griffithianum, Roylei, campylocarpum, Falconeri, 
Hodgsonii and cinnabarinum are uninjured and most of them are she wing 
a very fair average of bloom for 1918. 
No Azalea seems to be any the worse, still I cannot help hoping we may not 
be subjected to so sharp a test again in this coming spring. 
JOHN D. LLEWELLYN. 
lith December, 1917. 
159 
