Benmore Gardens

[Maggi Young]

Tom, that R. auriculatum tree is the loveliest thing I can imagine! I have been waiting over twenty years, nearly 25, for a flower on my plant! The fragrance must have been amazing! Wish you could bottle it and send it to me! I admit to a considerable bias, but I believe the scented white rhodos to be the most entrancingly beautiful flowers in a garden.... delicious and lovely, what could be nicer?
Thank you for this wonderful "fix" of my favourites..... I couldn't enjoy the pictures more!

[Paul T]

Howdy All,

Still catching up on the various postings while I haven't been visiting much.  Finally catching up with at least some of the Rhodo postings...... these are absolutely amazing.  Must be some place to visit!!  The azalea walk is breathtaking!!  Beautiful pics, thanks so much for taking the time to post them.

[TC]

Maggi

This is what a mature R. auriculatum looks like.  I could not stand back far enough to get it all in.  The lighting is poor but it gives an idea of the size and the abundance of flowers.
From my ancient perspective, 35 years of marriage makes you a beginner.  After 40 years you stop counting !!
Anyway, belated congratulations.

[Maggi Young]

Well Tom, if I ever get to see my R. auriculatum in that condition, with all those wonderful scented flowers, I'm not going to be a beginner at anything... I think the Guinness book of records will be involved.
I can see why one would stop counting after 40.... the pair of you have run out of fingers and toes to count on!
What a stunning tree....never seen better. May print out pic to show mine... perhpas it just needs to SEE what it is meant to be doing? 

[TC]

We have been at Benmore twice this October to catch the Autumn colour.  The first time was a bit too early so we returned again last Thursday.  We could have done with leaving it another week but with gales and heavy rain forecast it was too risky waiting.  When we arrived last Thursday, there was a plague of Red Squirrels raiding the bird feeders and then proceeding to bury the nuts nearbye.  It was the first time I had seen adults and juveniles together. The juveniles are almost black but this changes to the beautiful red we associate with them  However, the light was too low for photography using a high shutter speed so I will have to wait for another time. There was also a good crop of fungus scattered through the woodlands.
We also visited Glenbranter which is about 10 miles further along Loch Eck side.  This was the estate owned by Sir Harry Lauder and then taken over by the RBGE as their original planting of trees and rhododendrons collected in the wild.  I believe that this dates to around 1920.  When Benmore was acquired, the bulk of the collection was moved here, but many remained at Glenbranter to eventually disappear under commercial plantings.  These have now been rediscovered next to a large waterfall.  We took the track up here and noted many specimens clinging to the hillside so this will have to be investigated next Spring.  Anyway here is a flavour of what was about.  It will probably need two postings.

[TC]

A few more.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Heavenly Tom !
Thanks a lot for showing us !

[fermi de Sousa]

Lovely pics, Tom.
Those ones of Benmore pond look like they should be made into jig-saw puzzles! The 5,000 piece sort!
cheers
fermi

[David Nicholson]

Just caught up with these Tom-you really do take a beautiful picture.

[TC]

After a look at the weather forecast and a look out the window, we went off to Benmore for Peter Baxter's talk on the RBGE's trips to Japan.  The journey up the coast was a bit rough with squalls of sleet every few miles.  Luckily, the ferry was running so we made it in good time.  The garden was flooded in areas with some sizeable branches lying around which would have hurt if they had landed on you from 150 feet up !  The talk was excellent, seeing the trees in their native habitat and some of the resultant trees from the seed collected have now been planted in the garden.  We managed a quick look at a couple of the Rhododendrons now flowering.  To my surprise, there was an Oreodoxa in flower.  I photographed some of these flowering in April and May last year.  It just shows the variability of plants collected from different areas.  The other was a rather fetching Strigulosum hyb., not seen at its best in driving sleet.
As the wind was increasing in strength and the light was fading we set off back to Hunter's Quay for the ferry to find that all sailings had been suspended due to a force 9 gale.  This gave me a 135 mile drive home over the Rest-and-be-Thankful pass.  To those who do not know the area it's the only way back to Glasgow unless you wish to go by Oban which adds another 80 miles to the journey.  It was a bit uncomfortable with howling winds and sleet but gritter lorries were out on the road.  Once we got to Glasgow, it was nose to bumper all the way home.  Still, it was an interesting day out.

[Maggi Young]

What a nightmare journey, Tom... though I suppose it was better than a sinking ferry 
Just as well you enjoyed the Talk! Amazing to see these rhodos out now... and in this weather! Extraordinary... I wonder how many flowers they'll have left after a day of this wind, poor things?

[TC]

We had our third visit to the gardens this year - in beautiful sunny weather for a change.  We were greeted by news that the garden has now had to take precautions against Phytophthora ramorum - "sudden oak death" which has been discovered in Arduaine and Inverewe gardens.  A footwash has been installed at the entrance to the gardens to hopefully stop any infestations being brought in.
If this disease did get in, then the gardens would be all but destroyed.  A worrying thought.
On a brighter note, the rhododendron season has started and should be in full swing in about 4 weeks - barring gales and late frosts.
2008 02 14 Rh.barbatum
 2008 02 14 Rh.dauricum
 2008 02 14 Rh.ririei
 2008 02 14 Rh. rirei
 2008 02 14 Rh.barbatum
 Benmore Gardens entrance.
 hillside.
 Rh. cyanocarpum
 Rh. faucium flowers
 Rh. luteum

[TC]

Some more taken on 17 March
Rh. oreodoxa var fargesii hyb.
 Rh. praestans
 Rh. praestans flower
 Rh. thomsonii ssp.thomsonii flower
 Rh.barbatum.
 Rh.cyanocarpum bush
 Rh.floccigerum flower
 Rh.montroseanum.
 Rh.montroseanum flower
The captions on the last two pictures should be as above - delete monstreanum

[ian mcenery]

Hi Tom lovely thread thanks for sharing

I haven't heard of R monstreanum before not that I'm any sort of great authority on Rhodos. Is it a recent introduction? I do know of R montroseanum which I have and this does look a little like it. Can you shed any light 

[TC]

Ian.  It's just my crappy typing.  It should be montroseanum.  I have recently got a new wireless keyboard which requires harder pressure to generate the letters.  I have found that I now regularly miss out sequences of letters which I think I have typed. If I could be bothered proof reading, the errors would be corrected, however, I now know that people are actually looking closely at the captions to the pictures.  As regards to new varieties, there has been an extensive new planting high up the hillside of seed grown varieties from a few of the expeditions to China.  Several of these look as if they will flower this year so I will be taking pictures of them. As you probably know, the RSBG in Edinburgh have extensive contacts in China and have regular joint plant hunting trips, so new material is constantly being introduced.