Rhododendrons bloom so spectacularly that I am obligated to share pictures of them for Six on Saturday. I can not share pictures of all of them though. There are too many, and there are also too many pictures of other flowers that bloom at this time of year. As it is, these pictures were delayed because I shared pictures of other flowers earlier. Therefore, these Six will be the first and last pictures of rhododendrons that I will share this season. None of them are of my roommate, Rhody. None of the cultivars are identified. I should share pictures from my vacation next week. I arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday, and should leave for the Phoenix region on Sunday.

1. Anah Kruschke looks something like this; and this really is more purplish than it looks here. Bloom is so very late that some was still in bud, like those behind these two florets.

2. Floral trusses of this cultivar are huge! The branch structure is also big. The specimen that produced this bloom is more than twenty feet tall. It sags from its own floral weight.

3. Several rhododendrons here are white, but none are pure white. This one is somewhat spotty and blushed with a bit of lavender pink. It brightens its partially shaded situation.

4. Pink is likely the most common color among the rhododendrons here. Rich pink such as this mostly inhabits sunnier situations. Paler pink mostly inhabits shadier situations.

5. White with yellow spots seems to be somewhat whiter than lavender pink blushed and spotty white. A few specimens of this cultivar live here. Its foliage is not very impressive.

6. Red is a splendid color for rhododendrons. Red is not as splendid as lighter colors for shady situations though. That may be why it is uncommon within our shady landscapes.

This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

26 thoughts on “Six on Saturday: Rhody Obligation”

    1. All the red rhododendrons seem to be only three cultivars. Of those three, two are represented by only single specimens; so all the others seem to be the same. Anyway, I am pleased that they are in sunnier situations, where their rich color is more of an asset. I did not get more pictures of them because I happened to be closer to those in the shadier situations at the time.

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    1. My colleague grows hundreds of cultivars of Rhododendron. Of the four hundred or so that he maintains stock for, he produces about half. Yet, only two are pure white. Of those, one generates relatively small and nearly spherical trusses that look like snowballs on dark drab foliage. The other generates exquisitely large and symmetrical trusses, but they stand nearly vertically from floppy stems that are nearly horizontal. Neither were popular enough to bother producing.

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    1. A few species of Rhododendron are native to Pennsylvania. My colleague grew cultivars of some species of Rhododendron that are native to North America. I can not remember what was native to Pennsylvania though.

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    1. They are uncommon within most of California because they do not perform well within most of the many diverse climates here. However, a colleague grew them, and they happen to perform very well here and within other narrow coastal climates.

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  8. Beautiful rhodos! Brings back memories of living in Vancouver B.C., where there are huge rhodo bushes and hedges – so gorgeous in the spring! We can grow them in southern Ontario but they never look terribly happy – too cold in the winter, and too alkaline soil…

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    1. Thank you. They are awesome by our standards, and some are very large. However, they are not as large as those that I saw in the Pacific Northwest, in Washington south of Victoria.

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  10. They are all beautiful! I rarely see them here but when I lived in the UK we often went to the east coast in May and stopped for a picnic lunch in the grounds of Sandringham (the Queen’s favourite house) and they are magnificent there. It is a large estate, with huge old trees, curved driveways through the parkland and large rhododendrons flowering in all different colours beneath the tree canopy in dappled sunlight! You’d love it! By the way, is that where Rhody gets his name from?

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  11. My rhododendrons here are just starting to open–there’s usually a great show around Memorial Day. I don’t know what cultivars I have; most are that very common pinky-purple one that everyone seems to have. They were here when we moved to this house twenty years ago. They are absolutely huge. I have to put netting over them in the winter to keep the deer from eating them. I love them!

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    1. Gee, my colleague started growing rhododendrons in about 1974 partly because deer here do not eat them. A fence around them was not an option at the time.

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