Varieties Of Rhododendrons

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

The Almighty did not stint, creating plants of the genus Rhododendron. Evergreen and deciduous, with leathery leaves and bright inflorescences abundantly covering powerful or fragile shoots, they adorn our planet without pretending to special living conditions

Yakushiman rhododendron

Yakushiman rhododendron (Rhododendron yakushimanum) for his birth chose the country from which the sunrise begins over the Earth. Due to the lack of land in Japan, the rhododendron supported the love of the hardworking population for miniature size and, having changed its customs, turned into a dwarf shrub, rising to a height of a maximum of 60 cm and spreading its crown to the sides by 90 cm.

Its thin, but strong, shoots are decorated with dark green leathery leaves that have an oblong-lanceolate shape, and dome-shaped dense inflorescences, collected from flowers, pink in buds, but turning almost white as the petals open.

Daurian rhododendron

Daurian rhododendron (Rhododendron dauricum) for some time now has become a very popular plant with us, dry twigs of which are sold in early spring, in order, for example, to decorate Easter holidays with them. True, you will not hear a long, beautiful name from the seller, since the people call the plant “

Ledumohm.

The twigs, filled with water, quickly come to life and give a delicate pinkish-lilac bloom, intoxicating and bringing romantic dreams. The poet I. Morozov told about this very well in the song "Bagulnik", the music for which was created by V. Shainsky, who celebrated his

90th anniversary

Somewhere you can find Ledum bushes under the cedars, piercing the sky, as it is sung in the song, but more often it is located under rarely growing larch trees or cedar dwarf trees. He also loves to heal the earth, patching up wounds after fires and felling.

The unpretentiousness of Daurian Rhododendron will conquer the most unapproachable heart. It grows on gravelly soils and withstands the Yakut frosts, even the memory of which chills human blood.

Of course, Ledum cannot boast of the 6-meter height of Pontic Rhododendron, which grows in much more favorable climatic conditions, but it diligently pulls its thin pubescent shoots towards the sun, reaching two meters in height.

Bright green leaves give way to flowers the primacy of the phenomenon in this world, appearing at the end of flowering. By autumn, the green color of the leaves changes to brownish, the leaves begin to curl and fall off, leaving on the winter branches only the most persistent representatives covered with a dense network of scaly glands.

Each flower bud of the plant reveals to the world a funnel-bell-shaped delicate flower with a pinkish-lilac corolla on a short pedicel. Ten purple-pink stamens perkily rise in the center of the corolla, welcoming spring.

The high winter hardiness of Daurian Rhododendron made it a popular garden plant in areas with severe winters. Its seeds are also distinguished by their hardiness, maintaining germination for 3 years.

Numerous hybrids

Man likes to experiment with plants even when nature itself has taken care of the diversity of plant species. Rhododendrons are precisely the case when the initiative of creativity is intercepted from nature by man.

There are so many hybrids that classifications have to be invented in order to somehow systematize the fruits of human work.

Hybrids can be conditionally divided into the following groups:

* Evergreen Rhododendrons, whose parents are plants that were born in Asia. The diameter of flowers in such hybrids, as a rule, varies from 3 to 8 cm.

* Evergreen Ground Rhododendrons, which can be called cosmopolitan, since the parents are Asian, American and European species. The diameter of their funnel-shaped flowers varies from 5 to 8 cm, and the height of the plant and the width of the crown are from 3 to 5 meters.

* Deciduous Rhododendrons

* Azaliodendrons

* Western hybrids, born from the Western Rhododendron (Rhododendron occidentale) and the variety "Soft" Indian Azalea.