Rhodothamnus

[ian mcenery]

And a little about Diapensia lapponica - that's how she likes to grow in our Hibiny.

No wonder I find it difficult 

[johnw]

I regret for your loss - with Rh.adamsii just as with Rh. redowskianum - it is very difficult.

Natalia - Maybe we should have these moved to the Rhododendron thread.

Funny you should mention redowskianum. It is a little stinker and one of the reasons I have so little hair. I had a nice little plant growing well. One April day when the ground was still frozen the temperature went to 15c+. The redowskianum leafed out and then died then died days later.  It has no common sense in our climate, it assume where it grows summer comes the day after the snow is gone.    I would dearly lovely to grow this plant that looks like a swarm of butterflies.  Someone told me they had a white-flowered form... , I think it was the late Bengt Kihlman in Norway.

johnw - 0c / schneeflöcken

[Hoy]

John I have been growing Diapensia lapponica for about 4 years now and it increases steadily but does not flower. How do you manage yours? Mine is indirect light (not shady) but very cool. Does it need sun it must get more summer light than I can provide

I haven't grown Diapensia lapponica in the garden but in the wild you always find them on the summits with no shade at all. I would say yours get to little sun

[Natalia]

John, I'm more lucky with rhododendron Redovskogo. In the garden hibernates two plants from seeds Berkutenko. BUT ... They were planted in 2006, over the past 5 years, one grew to the size of 2х1cm, and the second 1x1 cm. Till this hot summer there were two more сеянца, but in a heat were lost...
Belotsvetkovuyu form not seen in the mountains say occurs, but it should go to the North and east of Lake Baikal. But there is a rare plant.Here are photos of the rhododendron:
http://nature.baikal.ru/phs/ph.shtml?id=15676
http://nature.baikal.ru/phs/ph.shtml?id=30920

[ian mcenery]

John I have been growing Diapensia lapponica for about 4 years now and it increases steadily but does not flower. How do you manage yours? Mine is indirect light (not shady) but very cool. Does it need sun it must get more summer light than I can provide

I haven't grown Diapensia lapponica in the garden but in the wild you always find them on the summits with no shade at all. I would say yours get to little sun

Trond the problem with this is that more sun equals more heat. It is a dilemma 

[Hoy]

Ian, I think they tolerate a lot of heat if the air is not stagnant and the soil doesn't dry out completely. The temp can sometimes be rather high at the ground level where they grow with intense unblocked solar radiation

[ian mcenery]

Ian, I think they tolerate a lot of heat if the air is not stagnant and the soil doesn't dry out completely. The temp can sometimes be rather high at the ground level where they grow with intense unblocked solar radiation

Maybe I should consider moving it but beware if it dies I will blame you

[Lesley Cox]

John, sorry, so other pics of my Diapensia. I was waiting until it flowers
I'm interested to see Natalia's pictures which say the D. lapponica is made up of little rosette growths. Mine is not, at all, as you see in my own pic. Why is this? I'm thinking I might take a couple of cuttings from that longish growth.

[Hoy]

Ian, I think they tolerate a lot of heat if the air is not stagnant and the soil doesn't dry out completely. The temp can sometimes be rather high at the ground level where they grow with intense unblocked solar radiation

Maybe I should consider moving it but beware if it dies I will blame you

If it grows in a pot you can move it back and forth at least twice a year

PS: Here's what it looks like in Norway:
http://www.kristvi.net/flora/F/fjellpryd.htm
http://www.rolv.no/bilder/galleri/fjellplanter/diap_lap.htm

[johnw]

Lesley - Here is a previously posted shot of my D. lapponica from last December.  The long shoots on yours is puzzling and hard to tell what the bun underneath looks like. I believe there is a prostrate form in Newfoundland growing on Cape St. Mary's but I can't imagine it would ever flush so vigorously.

Ian - Hoy & Natalia are correct, they grow in full sun with constant wind and little heat in Newfoundland.  If the temperature gets over 26c with sun & low humidity here the 60% shade cloth gets extended. Try that out.

Natalia - Well done with that little elf R. redowskianum. What a charmer, like a civilized camtschaticum! I am tempted to try it again, maybe as it ages it will have more sense and slow down. Many thanks for the pix of it as I have never seen the Russian ones, just those from NE China in Lancaster's book. This, ludlowii and lowndesii are the Holy Terrors of the Rhododendron World.

johnw

[Lesley Cox]

As I recall, mine was just the centre part when I bought it, and the longer shoots are growth since then, possibly as a result of living in its original small pot, in my totally shaded tunnel house. It has been kept reasonably moist but I have also lost plants in the same area when I thought there had been good rain but it hadn't penetrated properly and things got too dry, primulas in particular. Because of the non-rosette growth I'm almost wondering now if it's something else altogether. I'll try to find out from the source, what the plant source was in the first place. May not be successful though.

[Hoy]

As I recall, mine was just the centre part when I bought it, and the longer shoots are growth since then, possibly as a result of living in its original small pot, in my totally shaded tunnel house. It has been kept reasonably moist but I have also lost plants in the same area when I thought there had been good rain but it hadn't penetrated properly and things got too dry, primulas in particular. Because of the non-rosette growth I'm almost wondering now if it's something else altogether. I'll try to find out from the source, what the plant source was in the first place. May not be successful though.

Lesley,
Your plant can be a Diapensia grown under too shady conditions. They need high levels of UV to grow like the plants I find in the mountains here. Take a look at the leaves of the plant in the last picture in the second link I provided.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks for that note Hoy. You are right that mine has had (total) shade because I was so frightened of losing it. I suspect that even in the southern part of NZ our summer climate is very different from yours, and we have killing hot, dry north west winds that are fatal to many small ericaceous or primulaceous or gesneriaceous plants and I was afraid to let my Diapensia be exposed to them. Now it is outside it gets some sun and I can arrange for it to get more, while keeping it well moistened. It will be a balancing act.

So far as the (apparently) etoliated stems are concerned, I knew a nurserywoman, now deceased, who put various small plants such as Salix reticulata and S. x Boydii, very small tight rhodos, phyllodaces et al, into heavy shade and with a lot of water, with the intention of etoliating them, as she reackoned the resultant cutting material was easier to handle and being softer, rooted more quickly. Maybe this will be the case here too.

The pictures in your links are really beautiful. Something to haunt my dreams.

[ian mcenery]

Ian - Hoy & Natalia are correct, they grow in full sun with constant wind and little heat in Newfoundland.  If the temperature gets over 26c with sun & low humidity here the 60% shade cloth gets extended. Try that out.

.

johnw

Ian, I think they tolerate a lot of heat if the air is not stagnant and the soil doesn't dry out completely. The temp can sometimes be rather high at the ground level where they grow with intense unblocked solar radiation

Maybe I should consider moving it but beware if it dies I will blame you

If it grows in a pot you can move it back and forth at least twice a year

PS: Here's what it looks like in Norway:
http://www.kristvi.net/flora/F/fjellpryd.htm
http://www.rolv.no/bilder/galleri/fjellplanter/diap_lap.htm

Thanks I will have to look for a suitable spot- not made easy by my habit of acquiring more plants

[hadacekf]

Natalia,
I always lost my seedlings of Rhodothamnus chamaecistus in the summer in the second year. Cuttings did not make roots.