The scent of Maddenias

Although the weather is changeable and the main rhododendron flowering season is over, there is a lovely scent in the air. This comes from the maddenii rhododendrons in many forms that flower through June and July.

The star of the show this week is R nuttallii with huge waxy trusses of ivory flowers and delicious perfume. We have 3 plants and 2 are now covered in blossom and don’t seem to be damaged by rain- they really are sturdy.

You can see other R maddenii too, lots of these have lost their previous names such as R crassum and R brachysiphon and been subsumed into R maddenii after analysis by taxonomists - but the flowers, though similar, are identifiablely different in shape and colouring.