Rhododendron... every garden should have some

[Maggi Young]

Trond, I love your wintercap photo.... a perfect match in snow for the flower head when it comes
Maybe you should make a soft-focus version of the shot and tell the Rhodo fans you have developed a PURE WHITE rhodo!
They'll go mad for it.... no pink, no yellow tones, perfect white, very early flowering....... it would sell by the hundred!

[Hoy]

Thanks, Maggi!
What a great idea to sell white winter flowering rhodos! I'll do the propagation and you can take care of the selling business and we share 50/50! That's a deal!

[Maggi Young]

Agreed! We'll be rich!  

 I have a plan for another product we can market...... white conifers......pure white conifer cushions....... 

[Hoy]

I have such items too. You'll notice them everywhere in this picture.

[Maggi Young]

Folks, some rhodo talk in the Rhodothamnus thread, starting around this message.....
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5406.msg184759#msg184759

[Lampwick]

Rhododendron name. 

Could someone please tell me what this dwarf rhododendron might be, or the possible group it might belong to?
I was sure it had a label, but it must be buried amongst its roots and the annual top-dressings I have given it over the years…Thanks!
 

[Maggi Young]

Looks like one of the Warren Berg hybrids.... 'Wee Bee' ?

[johnw]

Looks like one of the Warren Berg hybrids.... 'Wee Bee' ?

Lampwick

No this one is straightforward. Yes it is 'Wee Bee' or it could be 'Too Bee' with the same parentage but then again it is more than likely 'Not Too Bee' which of course is an invalid name but a synonym of 'Wee Bee'. In any case the parentage is 'Patricia' x keiskei 'Yaku Fairy' but not really as Warren Berg called his own seed grown keiskei plant 'Yaku Fairy' when in fact that name is only valid for Barry Starling's AM form of keiskei rightfully named by him 'Yaku Fairy'.

Clear?  Glad Maggi and I could straighten you out here. If only Galanthus were so easy.  

BTW one has a blotch and I believe the other(s) doesn't/don't but I can't recall for some reason which is which.

johnw

[David Nicholson]

John, I was chatting with Barry Starling the other evening and he sends you his best wishes.

[johnw]

Lampkin

Joking aside (but the mess mentioned is no joke), from RHS The International Rhododendron Register & Checklist (2nd Edition):

Wee Bee - "shading to strong pink (52C) in throat, with vivd red (45B) spotting on the dorsal lobe, outisde 52A with strong red (51a) rays down each lobe."

Too Bee - shading to light pink (49c) in the throat, with dorsal spotting of strong red (50A) in the throat (More bad news  - "originally published in error as 'To Bee')"

So, very well could bee Wee Bee'.

johnw

[johnw]

John, I was chatting with Barry Starling the other evening and he sends you his best wishes.

So he's back from Mexico, time to ring him up. Thanks David.

I see he has an article on Menzesias in the lastest RHS Rhodo, Camellia and Magnolia Journal.  Also hear they have been recently all renamed completely as Rhododendron. Argh.


johnw

[Lampwick]

Thank you Maggi and johnw; I will go along with 'Wee Bee' then, as that name seems to “ring-a-bell” in the deep murky depths of my memory! 
 

[mark smyth]

here's a small plant 

[Hoy]

here's a small plant 

Mark, I do agree! It is very small compared to the birches I have in my garden but they don't have that colour

[Graham Catlow]

I showed the photo below last year not knowing what it was and some of you kindly gave your suggestions. The heavy snow of this past winter broke the centre of it and as it has finished flowering I decided to give it a hard prune.
Lo and Behold right in the centre and buried under the old leaf litter was the label

Rhododendron lepidotum 'Reuthe's Purple'