Rhododendron... every garden should have some

[johnw]

Graham  - Looking at your first pic ithe leaves look like campylogynum but the flowers are too open-faced so suggest it may be a campylogynum hybrid. Also myrtilloides would be much more compact and flowers smaller than regular campylogynum. The second pic Maggi may be right, this is a very confusing lot especially with the new (what is it 25 years now!) names- calostrotum or even calostrotum Keleticum Group or saluenense. The evergreen azalea isn't Wombat which is prostrate and has a noticeable blotch, I don't know Lemur so Maggi may be correct.  The last photo, I recognize the leaves but can't put a name on it.

Now the last posting showing three shots of a white is most certainly the white campylogynum. Congratulations it is very well grown, I find it desperately difficult to grow well and worse to get through the winters here.  

johnw

[Maggi Young]

 a cute white campylogynum, you could call it  R. camp. leucanthum.....

[johnw]

a cute white campylogynum, you could call it  R. camp. leucanthum.....

That's it Maggi .... 'Leucanthum' or var. leucanthum.

Do you agree the first pinky "camp" is too open-faced?  Some of the flowers in profile look okay.

Maybe Jens can help us on these and the calos???

johnw

[Graham Catlow]

a cute white campylogynum, you could call it  R. camp. leucanthum.....

Hooray! I worked that one out correctly. That's what I put on the label last week
Thanks Maggi and John.

[Graham Catlow]

Hi Maggi & John,
I have just been out in the rain to get a couple more photos that may help with the ID's of a couple of the Rhodo's.
This is the one I named Myrtilloides now named in the photos as NOT myrtilloides. Maybe these will help.

The flowers start quite deep pink and then fade. The habit of the plant is quite open but I have pruned it back a couple of times.

Graham.

[Diane Clement]

Could the bluey/purple one be an impeditum hybrid, such as Blue Tit or Sapphire (which is Blue Tit backcrossed with impeditum).  The only thing is, it seems too late in the season, mine of these varieties are in flower in April. 

[Maggi Young]

The pinky flatter flowered campy might be a 'Patricia'....it's hard to tell colour from a photo but I don't think it's 'Plum Branklyn'


I don't think it's one of those, Diane... too late for them and also the flower form... those tend not to have such neat little pompom heads.

[Graham Catlow]

Could the bluey/purple one be an impeditum hybrid, such as Blue Tit or Sapphire (which is Blue Tit backcrossed with impeditum).  The only thing is, it seems too late in the season, mine of these varieties are in flower in April. 

Hi Diane and Maggi,

I should have said that all these in the post were what I have in the collection but not necessarily flowering now. This one is an early flowering one over by the time the others are in flower. So an impeditum hybrid sounds possible and sounds familiar.

Graham

[Diane Clement]

The pinky flatter flowered campy might be a 'Patricia'....it's hard to tell colour from a photo but I don't think it's 'Plum Branklyn'

I don't think it's one of those, Diane... too late for them and also the flower form... those tend not to have such neat little pompom heads.

OK, agree about the timing on the blue.  
My Patricia doesn't have flat flowers, similar bell shape to campylogynum but bigger bells

and for comparision of the blue one (pictures taken around mid April):
Blue tit
Sapphire

[Maggi Young]

Not flat but flatter than staight campylogynum... so I think Patricia is still in the frame for this ID.
I still incline to 'Intrifast' for the purpley one, the earlier flowering suits that, too. It shows the influnce of fastigiatum in colour, foliage and flower head.
It might be 'Blue Diamond', rather than 'Blue Tit', but I think the colour of Graham's is more intense.  

[Graham Catlow]

Not flat but flatter than staight campylogynum... so I think Patricia is still in the frame for this ID.
I still incline to 'Intrifast' for the purpley one, the earlier flowering suits that, too. It shows the influnce of fastigiatum in colour, foliage and flower head.
It might be 'Blue Diamond', rather than 'Blue Tit', but I think the colour of Graham's is more intense.  

The name Patricia associated with a Dwarf Rhodo in my collection sits deep in my memory bank, so I am inclined to agree with that.

As for the blue one; I think we are close but none of the names you have suggested rings a bell. It is a very deep purple not a dark blue and its habit is quite compact possibly 0.75m in 15years.
Perhaps we will need to leave this until next year when I can get better photos.
Thank you both.

Graham

[johnw]

Not flat but flatter than staight campylogynum... so I think Patricia is still in the frame for this ID.
I still incline to 'Intrifast' for the purpley one, the earlier flowering suits that, too. It shows the influnce of fastigiatum in colour, foliage and flower head.
It might be 'Blue Diamond', rather than 'Blue Tit', but I think the colour of Graham's is more intense.  

Oh dear these Lapponica type are a real headache.  I went out and compared 'Intrifast' from Gendoick and the leaves are shaped differently and the new ones decidely blue; this may be a selected Intrifast I have but no shine on the older leaves.  Another problem is getting the colour right with a camera but the colour is close to 'Intrifast' (intricatum x fastigiatum).

re: The 'Blue Tit' shown.   Here the habit is different, wider than tall but that may be climatic.

re: 'Sapphire' It seems it is more purplish in the photo than the real mccoy.  I don't have it and it has been years since I have seen it but the blue had a real sparkle. Here's a shot of the F2.  Note the colour discrepancy - the wider shot is close to the true colour.

One thing to keep in mind that many of these purported impeditum hybrids are probably fastigiatum hybrids as the true impeditum is not so common and may been used in the old crosses like the ones named after Cornish towns - St. Tudy etc.  Every plant still sold as impeditum here is fastigiatum.  

johnw

[Maggi Young]

The small size over that period of growth does suggest either Intrifast or even straight fastigiatum... which I have a nice shiny leaved form of, quite like Graham's.
I thought by the initial photo that the plant might be rather larger than it really is.

[Graham Catlow]

The small size over that period of growth does suggest either Intrifast or even straight fastigiatum... which I have a nice shiny leaved form of, quite like Graham's.
I thought by the initial photo that the plant might be rather larger than it really is.

You are all working really hard on this. Many thanks.
I have no recollection of purchasing any of the named varieties that you are suggesting but fastigiatum is something that is familiar though it could be familiar for no other reason than I have seen it somewhere recently. The leaves are indeed shiny as you suggest Maggi.
As you can tell I am an enthusiast not an expert and I wish that I had had the same enthusiasm to have my plants named 15 years ago as I do now.

Graham

[johnw]

The small size over that period of growth does suggest either Intrifast or even straight fastigiatum... which I have a nice shiny leaved form of, quite like Graham's.
I thought by the initial photo that the plant might be rather larger than it really is.

Hmmm, this is why rhodo lovers go to bed with headaches.

Here's 'Intrifast' ex Glendoick shot #1 and as may be a selected form or a repeat of the cross.  It doesn't have that curved shiny old foliage and has remnants of scales.  Also a shot of fastigiatum #2 and the true impeditum #3.  The last two were identified by Cullen himself.  

Maggi - If you look at the fastgiatum shot you'll see the old leaves have a slight curve so a fastgiatum hybrid Graham's may be.  These are a minefield and we haven't  - and won't - even discussed scales, their distance apart or their colour.