Dwarf Kalmias

[Kimjy]

Kalmia season has arrived - always gets me really excited !! 

Kalmia 'Elf' is in full bloom now - really love this plant. Does anyone know of or grow any other good dwarf Kalmias ?
 

[johnw]

Kalmia season has arrived - always gets me really excited !!  

Kalmia 'Elf' is in full bloom now - really love this plant. Does anyone know of or grow any other good dwarf Kalmias.
 

These are worth tracking down - Tinkerbell, Tiddlywinks, Minuet and Little Linda.  As most - if not all - were bred by Dick Jaynes check out his nursery list for descriptions and any new ones. Also a shot of Dick and his wife when they visited a few years ago and standing in front of 'Elf'.

www.brokenarrownursery.com

johnw

[Kimjy]

These are worth tracking down - Tinkerbell, Tiddlywinks, Minuet and Little Linda.  As most - if not all - were bred by Dick Jaynes check out his nursery list for descriptions and any new ones. Also a shot of Dick and his wife when they visited a few years ago and standing in front of 'Elf'.

www.brokenarrownursery.com

johnw

Thanks for the tips and the photo - really great to put a face to the guy behind this !

I'm in UK so I think we may have some difficulties importing evergreens from the US, although it's easier from Germany where there seem to be a few more suppliers with a bigger range than here .. still very limited in the UK. Minuet, I think, has filtered through for sale here in small numbers but the others will be very scarce if available.
I'll put them on my hit list and start hunting !

[Onion]

Kim,

there are a lot of new cultivars available here in the nursery area in northwest of Germany. But the main problem is that a lot of mislabeled Kalmia grow here. A decade ago there were micro propaged from a company and sold in high quantities. But we get not what we have on the labels. So we have a funny, mixed population of cultivates. This take place 5 to 6 years before the company recognized that they have not the cultivars they sold. So the cultivars are often mixed.

Here a link to a specialist nursery, with a couple of cultivars

http://bulk-boskoop.nl/en/

And a link to get a poor man 

http://www.kalmia-society.org/nurseries.php?lang=gb

[Kimjy]

Kim,

there are a lot of new cultivars available here in the nursery area in northwest of Germany. But the main problem is that a lot of mislabeled Kalmia grow here. A decade ago there were micro propaged from a company and sold in high quantities. But we get not what we have on the labels. So we have a funny, mixed population of cultivates. This take place 5 to 6 years before the company recognized that they have not the cultivars they sold. So the cultivars are often mixed.

Here a link to a specialist nursery, with a couple of cultivars

http://bulk-boskoop.nl/en/

And a link to get a poor man 

http://www.kalmia-society.org/nurseries.php?lang=gb

Thanks Uli - that's very helpful information and explains why the prices vary so much. The Kalmia Society website also looks very helpful for sourcing plants. I have purchased Kalmias from Hachmann nursery who sent them to the UK without problems on plant passport. They travel well and are very happy here so I am quite confident to buy more this way.

One of my most favourite plants.

Kim