Tender rhododendrons

In the front section of our conservatory, attached to the house, several tender rhododendrons have been flowering for the past fortnight. Chip Lima gave us a wonderful plant of R veitchianum with large starry flowers that had become too big for its previous home and with this are several others, all scented, and 2 more still to bloom. It’s great to see them up close to try to identify them but not easy- they are all in the Maddenii group. In a couple of weeks we will put them outside for the summer- keeping them fresh and bug free.

We finally decided to remove the Viburnum davidii at the front of the house this weekend. It had grown too far up and out and was hiding a lovely stuartia behind. Rhododendron ‘Razorbill’ had grown vertically beside it and also had to be cut down, but leaving one low branch for now.

It looks far better- light and airy with the beautiful trunks of the stuartia now visible.