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/
Tony Tomeo 
Lovely, colourful, six this week, I particularly like the first white one.
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The first white bloom is almost as big as the massive pink bloom. It is sometimes more blushed, so I do not know if it is blushed white or pink.
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Nice choice ! I pushed up a few of mine on Twitter and Insta yesterday …
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I should have been more diligent with getting pictures of them. I could have found richer colors, although not a better white.
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Lovely shots, Tony. The red is my favourite, but the white with red/pink marks comes a close second. Have fun!
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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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Oh my goodness these are pretty. I don’t think I’ve seen many white ones.
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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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They are so pretty. In PA where I vacation, there are wild rhododendrons.
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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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They’re all really beautiful. My neighbor planted a read one behind her house this year so I’ve been able to enjoy it too.
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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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I love your rhododendron time, what a great show!
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Thank you. It would have been better with Rhody.
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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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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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You must live in a great rhodo spot, they look wonderfully healthy and beautiful flowers.
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Yes, they perform very well here and on the farm. However, they do not perform as well farther inland.
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Microclimates are something!
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These are distinct climates rather than microclimates. Climates here are extremely diverse.
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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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Yes, Rhody is named after rhododendron, which was a revered colleagues primary crop. Rhododendrons perform very well on his farm as well as here and many coastal climates.
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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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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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They bother them only in the winter when there’s little else available. They’ll eat anything when they’re hungry enough.
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Well, winter is not the same here. There is always something for them to eat.
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