6. The dwarfs
Small stature Rhododendron cultivars.
Hovedinnhold
In the 1930s, a low, compact, nearly mound-forming Rhododendron was discovered on the humid, weather-beaten island of Yakushima at the southernmost tip of Japan. It had pinkish-white campanulate flowers and dark green leaves with brownish indumentum and was named Rhododendron yakushimanum. It was the discovery of the century and revolutionized the post-war cultivar assortment – particularly in the 1970s – with a series of low, dense, floriferous plants suitable for the small modern garden.
Some of the first, Waterer’s, were named after Snow White’s seven dwarfs. Of these we have ‘Bashful’ and ‘Dopey’. Gradually other colours have been crossed into the species from older cultivars, even yellow, such as in ‘Flava’ and ‘Percy Wiseman’. Though most are still pinkish, particularly glowing red shades have been achieved in the spectacular ‘Lampion’, a crossing with R. repens; ‘Morgenrot’, and the unsurpassed ‘Fantastica’ from Hachmann. ‘Schneekrone’ is another of Hachmann’s excellent crosses, with white flowers. There are even a few yellow-flowered cultivars, e,g. ‘Marietta’ (which actually is more cream-coloured than bright yellow, and as such was a disappointment to the breeder).
R. yakushimanum cultivars are easily grown and are particularly well suited for our climate. Given time they can become quite large.
