Rhododendron ‘Gaiety’ • Azalea

Rhododendron Rhododendron / Azalea  •  シャクナゲ / ツツジ  •  石楠花 / 躑躅    shakunage / tsutsuji

It was on Kathleen Smith’s 2002 rhodie poster, so naturally I was very interested in its bloom; it finally came on this week in the south bed of Azumaya.    Our Plant List describes it as ‘corolla has two shade of pinks’, and it surely does! – see pics below.

SJG • 5/20/13 – Rhododendron ‘Gaiety’ • Azalea; Area T (South bed of Azumaya)

SJG • 5/20/13 – Rhododendron ‘Gaiety’ • Azalea; Area T (South bed of Azumaya) – FLOWERS and leaves

From Backyard Gardener:  […] Upright to widely spreading, evergreen azalea developed primarily for cold hardiness along the mid-Atlantic states. Single, funnel-shaped, light purplish-pink flowers, 2 to 3 inches wide. Flowers are borne in showy trusses of 1 to 4 per cluster. Bloom time is late April in warmer areas and as late as early June in cooler climates. […]

From Learn2grow:  […] Displaying showy clusters of large, rose-pink, crimson-blotched blooms in early to mid-spring, ‘Gaiety’ is one of the more than 400 evergreen azalea hybrids developed from the late 1920s through the 1940s at the United States Department of Agriculture’s Plant Introduction Station at Glenn Dale, Maryland. […]

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Leucothoe fontanesiana • Leucothoe

Leucothoe •  Leucothoe  •  イワナンテン  •  岩南天  • iwa-nanten

I noticed this plant while walking along the W path; four of them grow right on the banks of the pond, not very tall, maybe 2-3 feet tall, and blooming right now with white dainty flowers + new bronze colored leaves. I had no clue what I was looking at, but through elimination method came to the conclusion it has to be leucothoe; later comparing the pics on the internet confirmed it.  So now I know of a new plant, area V, pics below.

SJG • 5/20/13 – Leucothoe fontanesiana • Leucothoe; Area V

SJG • 5/20/13 – Leucothoe fontanesiana • Leucothoe; Area V. FLOWERS and leaves

From Floridata:  […]  The weeping shrub has long, lance shaped leaves on slender stems with almost no branching. It grows 3′-5′ high with equal spread, and seems weighted down by its burden of flowers. The white, fragrant, and somewhat pitcher shaped blooms are similar to blueberry flowers. Although it blooms prolifically in mid-spring, there is so much foliage that the visual display is not particularly showy.

Location: Native to North America. Evergreen in the south; semi-evergreen in the north.

From Monrovia: Rainbow Drooping Fetterbush • Leucothoe fontanesiana ‘Rainbow’

Gracefully arching, striking red stems with colorful, mottled leaves. Showy, drooping clusters of white flowers. Effective as hedge, or clip to make nice groundcover. Good cut flowers. […]

From wikipedia:  Leucothoe fontanesiana (highland dog hobble, mountain doghobble, switch ivy) is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to the southeastern United States. It is an erect evergreen shrub growing to 1–2 m (3–7 ft) tall by 3 m (10 ft) broad, with laurel-like glossy leaves 6–16 cm (2–6 in) long, and pendent axillary racemes of urn-shaped flowers in spring. […]

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Rhododendron ‘Galathea’ • Azalea

Rhododendron Rhododendron / Azalea  •  シャクナゲ / ツツジ  •  石楠花 / 躑躅    shakunage / tsutsuji

There was once a mature, 2-3′ tall roundly shaped azalea ‘Galathea’ in front of Kasuga lantern,  where the main path forks into the East and West paths; Kathleen Smith featured it in her 2002 rhodie poster (which I’m trying to replicate this year). Alas, it’s gone, lost to something or another.  Our Plant List informs that 3 ‘Galatheas’ were planted in 2007 in the same area (E) somewhere else, so I went to look for them  – found them small, about 1′ tall, but because only after the bloom time I discovered the 4th, mature 4′ tall one in Z area, this youngsters will have to do for now…

SJG • 5/17/13 – Rhododendron ‘Galathea’ • Azalea, corolla brick-red; Area E. Seen here from the E path: the closer two have a fern between them, the one in the back is near the stream, where the growing there primroses of similar color seem to camouflage it as something else and a bit hard to see.

SJG • 5/17/13 – Rhododendron ‘Galathea’ • Azalea, corolla brick-red; Area E. That black thing in the middle is an ant visiting.

For some reason the search engine returns 3 top links to a Polish Union of Hybridizers (I didn’t ask for it, Poles must love this plant), and because the info there was better than the second page return of the  English-language description (below), I’m including it here, in (reasonably good) google-translation:

Azalia ‘Galathea’ – Groups of Japanese azalea (inductive Kurume Azalea Azalea & kaempferi).  Relatively fast-growing shrub, with a broad and wide-spreading habit. It grows up after 10 years to about 150 cm in height. The leaves are dark green, fall color staining to brązowozielonego. In cold and snowless winters lost a lot of leaves. Flowers are large, about 4 inches wide, dark red, growing in the second half of May. It requires a quiet and good winter coat. It belongs to the group of Glenn Dale.

origin explorer, farmer (selector): BYMorrison
introduction to trading: BY Morrison, 1947; U.S.
group of plants  – heather (group information)
Consumer group  – Japanese azaleas
form – bush
force growth – fast growing plant
Slice – bushy spreading
Target height – from 1 m to 2 m
color of leaves (needles) – dark
hardiness of leaves (needles) –  semi-evergreen leaves
type of flowers – Single
inflorescence
flowers color – red
flowering May […]

Note from aleks: ‘brazowozielonego’ in ‘all color staining to brązowozielonego’ means ‘brownish-green’ leaves in fall (machine translation trouble with compound words); also, Poland has cold and snowy winters, hence warning about lost leaves, giving it a ‘quiet’ (screened) place and a ‘good winter coat’ (it’s not unusual in Poland to cover for winter delicate azaleas with straw and burlap or something similar).

From A Plant’s Home: […] Upright to widely spreading, twiggy, evergreen azalea developed primarily for cold hardiness along the mid-Atlantic states. Single, funnel-shaped, dull red flowers, 1 1/2 inches wide. Flowers are borne in showy trusses of 1 to 4 per cluster. Bloom time is late April in warmer areas and as late as early June in cooler climates.  […]

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Rhododendron decorum hybrid • Great white rhododendron

Rhododendron • シャクナゲ • 石楠花 • shakunage

Edited 5/27/18:  – added common name (from RHS, see link below), and added current pic (not much changed in the garden in that area since 2013)

Other common names: great white rhododendron

It blooms right now in May, and being the tallest rhododendron in area B (20′) it is easily identifiable; best viewed from the Tateuchi  Room patio, from where the flowers (which appear white from this distance, although the Plant List describes them as ‘corolla pink shade’) create sharp contrast to reds of burgundy lace maple growing behind it, and the lace-feaf maple in front of it.

SJG • 5/11/18 – Rhododendron decorum hybrid • Rhododendron; Area B, corolla pink shade. Viewed  from main path.

SJG • 5/17/13 – Rhododendron decorum hybrid • Rhododendron; Area B, 20′ tall, ‘corolla pink shade’. Viewed  from TCR patio.

SJG • 5/17/13 – Rhododendron decorum hybrid • Rhododendron; Area B, ‘corolla pink shade’ – flower and leaves

 

From wikipedia:  Rhododendron decorum (大白杜鹃) is a rhododendron species native to Myanmar and Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang, and Yunnan, China, where it grows at altitudes of 1000–3300 meters. It is a shrub or small tree that grows to 1–6 m in height, with leathery leaves that are oblong, oblong-ovate or oblong-elliptic, 5–19 by 3–11 cm in size. Flowers are white to pale pink.

Synonyms:  None recorded. […]

From Plants of Tibet: […] Shrubs or small trees, 1-6 m tall; young shoots greenish, glabrous. Petiole 12-40 mm, glabrous; leaf blade thickly leathery, oblong, oblong-ovate or oblong-elliptic, 5-19 (-30) cm long, 3-11 cm wide; base cordate or cuneate to nearly rounded; apex obtuse, rounded, apiculate; both surfaces glabrous when mature; abaxial surface pale green; adaxial surface deep green, midrib prominent abaxially, grooved adaxially; lateral veins 18-paired. Inflorescence 8-10-flowered; rachis 20-25 mm, sparsely glandular. […] corolla funnel-campanulate, fragrant, white to pale pink, 3-10 cm long, 5-9 cm wide, outer surface sparsely glandular, inner surface puberulent at base; lobes 6-8 […] 

Habitat: Growing in forests, thickets; 1000-3300 m. […]

From the Royal Horticultural Society, 2018: […] Details: R. decorum is a large evergreen shrub or small tree, to 6m tall, with oblong leaves to 15cm long, pale beneath, and trusses of large, strongly-fragrant, funnel-shaped white or pink-tinged flowers, greenish-yellow in the throat, in late spring and early summer […]

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Rhododendron ‘Gumpo White’ • Spreading Azalea

Rhododendron Rhododendron / Azalea  •  シャクナゲ / ツツジ  •  石楠花 / 躑躅    shakunage / tsutsuji

Three of them grow in area B, in front of Tateuchi Room: one right at the entrance to Garden, below 4-trunked cedar and two by the Lantern. At this point and in their surroundings they look more like a ground cover than azaleas, although  they are listed as 12” tall; they may grow to 2-3′ tall and spread 3-4′ each, so they are rather small by nature. They are not prolific bloomers this year, but that too, may be in their nature –  I read that they are rather finicky about soil condition and amount of light, so that too,  probably impacts their blooming habits.

SJG • 5/20/13 – Rhododendron ‘Gumpo White’ • Spreading Azalea; Area B (the pink one behind it is Rh. ‘Fawn’)

SJG • 5/15/13 – Rhododendron ‘Gumpo White’ • Spreading Azalea; Area B – Flower and leaves

From Learn2Grow:  Rhododendron ‘Gumpo White'( Satsuki Hybrid). Plant Common Name: Evergreen Azalea, Gumpo White Azalea, Satsuki Azalea

[…] Introduced from Japan to the West in the early 20th Century, Satsuki hybrid azaleas are broadleaf evergreen shrubs prized for their large flowers and compact habit. The cultivar ‘Gumpo White’ produces large, clear white, funnel shaped flowers with wavy petals. Flowering occurs in mid to late spring. […]

From Jericho Farms: […] Gumpo White Azalea is a satsuki hybrid. It is considered to be a dwarf grower. It flowers in May and has a fairly large, single, wavy, white bloom.. It is not as prolific a bloomer as other azalea varieties but does provide good color after other azaleas are finished blooming. It is a good choice where a low growing plant is needed in shady areas. […]