NORTH ISLANT)RHODODENDRON SOCIETY

P.O. Box 3183 Courtenay, B.C., Canada V9N 5N4 Vol. 17 No. 9 May, 2003

President Harry Wright 338 8345Vice-pres Paul Wurz 287 4301Secretary Marleen Crucq339 7845Treasurer Don Law 339 2735Ways & Means

Ann Chewier 339 3048Publicity Evelyr Wright 339 7493

Harry Wright 338 8345Librarian Bonnie Steele 334 9436Social Gwen Wright 338 8345

Evelyn Wright 339 7483MembershipBernie Guyader 3385267Revenue Table Richard Bonney

339 7594Editor Mary Palmer 923 6629Articles not credited are by the editor.The club meets the second Tuesday ofthe month, except July and August, atthe United Church on Comox Ave.,Comox 7:30 p.m.

6 MayExeQutive mepting at the home ofPaul Wurz,4367 Gordon Rd.Campbell River. Turn offNorthIsland Highway at Duncan Bay Rd.,north of the pulp mill, and followthrough to Gordon Rd.

13 MayAnnual General Meeting will be heldat Evelyn Wright's home, 1672Beaufort Ave., Comox, after a tour ofher garden, weather permitting.Please remember to bring gardenchairs.

8 AprilIf you are interested in grafting, this isthe time of year to do it, and HarryWright demonstrated top grafting andwedge grafting, using sticks whichmade it very easy to see what is doneand how. He recommended the useof little grafting rubbers, though

ordinary elastic bands or electricaltape are usable though not as good.Do not use duct tape, for it will pullthe bark off when you try to removeir.

Kevin Moore of RenaissanceGreenhouse Gardens, near theSunnydale Golf Course, north ofCourtenay, gave a graphic illustrationof how a simply-made hanging basketwill turn into a spectacular decorationfor your garden. He used a moss linerin a wire basket, and25 "stuffers" in2" pots. Add soil and Osmocote (14-14-14) and the basket is ready to waitin a protected comer until the weatherwarns up a little. He kindly donatedthe finished product to be used as a

door prize.

MEMBER NOTESI accidntally omitted thanking JosephRicher for the lovely Bonsai hebrought to the Feb. meeting for a"show and tell" and later donated it tothe club for use as a door prize.Thanks very much, Joseph.

Would you like to open your gardenoccasionally to members during thesummer? Don't worry about theweeds; people want to see yourspecial treasures, or find out whycertain plants do well in one locationand are failwes in "my" garden.Leave your name with Harry or Paul.

Helen Chesnut, writing in theColonist recently, gave us such goodadvice on getting rid of aphids, I amgoing to quote large parts ofherarticle. Aphids arepart of the naturalscene, but they can be controlled.

"Overwintered plants, especiallypansies, are most vulnerable toinfestations. They put out soft, newgrowth early in the year, when aphidpredators are not yet active in thegarden.

My first line of control is a squish andswish routine, involving gentlysqueezing the thick aphid clusters atthe soft tips of the plants, then hoseany leftovers off the plants.

As the season progresses, as long as

there is a variety ofplants rich inpollen and nectar in the garden nearbyto feed them, beneficials such as

hover flies, lady bugs, lacewings andparasitic wasps will control aphids, as

long as these helpers have not beenkilled by sprays.

Common weeds such as QueenAnne's Lace, dandelion, lamb'squarters and goldenrod, along withgarden flowers such as candytuft,marigold, alyssum, salvia andschizanthus, allallract and feedbenefi cial insects. Small-fl oweredplants such as dill, thyme, lemon balmand other herbs feed tiny beneficialwasps. Yarrow, daisies andconeflowers supply pollen to ladybugs and others.

Take frequent watchful strollsthrough the garden to catch aphids notbeing controlled by beneficials.Remove aphid-infected shoots orsquish and swish them. Plain water isbest - use insecticidal soap as a lastresort."

While on the subject of garden pests,here is more good advice fromHarry Wright.

RHODODENDRONLEAFHOPPERS feed by suckingsap fiom the leaves during thesurnmer. They actually cause nodirect damage to rhodos, but as theylay their overwintering eggs in theflower buds, they make incisions thatprovide entry sites for the spores ofbud blast disease. Adult leaflroppersare present on the plant from lateJuly to October. They are 3/8" long,turquoise green with orange-redmarkings on their wings andabdomen, but their yellow-greennymphal stages are less active andmay be found on the undersides ofleaves.

Ifplants are affected by bud blastdisease, spray with a systemicinsecticie during August to Octoberto control the leafrroppers.

SNOW WHITE AND THESEVEN DWARFSAnyone who has visited HarryWright's garden will have noticedthis large cement family, and therhodos that go with them. ln Feb.1989 Harry wrote the followingarticle and our newsletter, and I feelit is well worth repeating.

"A few years ago I became aware ofthe rhodos with very interestingnames; these names belonging to the7 Dwarfs.Earlier my wife and I had purchaseda concrete set of "Snow White andthe Seven Dwarfs". We thoughtthese would make good replacementitems for our children, who were fastleaving home, with a much lowermaintenance cost - and we certainlymade a good choice, for these littlecreatures do what they are told, andtheir needs are few!

My next task was to try to locatethese little rascals in plant form.

May,2003

After 3 Western RegionalConferences, and various plant sales,my collection was complete. Soundssimple. Well, it would have been,except that about 3 months after mylast two procurements, my supplierinformed me that two of my dwarfrhodos were not who they weresupposed to be, in fact he didn'tknow who they were. So add onemore conference, and the total wasback up to seven.

During the time I spent collectingthese little guys I kept asking forRhodo 'Happy', only to find out therewas no 'Happy'; instead there was a'Hoppy', this concerned me. Didsomeone mis-spell the name? Thenext step was to get in touch withHarold Johnson, our District 1

Director, who always had an answer.This is Harold's simple explanation:when the 7 Dwarfs were beingregistered it was found the name'Happy'was already in use, so it wasdecided to get as

close as possiblewith the name'Hoppy'. (Justmumble).

The Dwarfs all haveYakusishimanum intheir parentage andthis is apparent as theplants are low andcompact, with goodflower colour andform. Foliage isgood and the plantsare all hardy to -5F,except for'Dopey',who tolerates a

temperaure of +5Fonly.

Ifyou enjoycollecting, theseseven little rascals would make agood choice. By the way, hasanyone seen Snow White?

Ed. Note: I looked up 'Snow White'

in Salley & Greer's comprehensivebook, and found she has been aroundfor many years. She is a R.griffithianum x fornrnei cross, sameas the Loderi grex. She has purewhite, wide open flowers, andreceived an A.M. from the RHS in1923.

OBITI was saddened to hear GrahamStuart Thomas had died on 17

April, age 94. He was associatedwith various famous gardens andtook a keen interest in many kinds ofplants - alpines, "old" roses,perennials - and wrote useful bookson these and many other gardeningsubjects.

Books such as "Plants for Ground-Cover"," Perennial Garden Plants",."The Rock Garden & its Plants","The Old Shrub Roses" and "Colourin the Winter Garden" are just a few

Mr. Thomas was an artisticgar dener, pl ant sm an, photogr ap herand artist. This sketch ofa rose,rhodo and hosta was takenfrom hisbook, 'Plants for Ground Cover'.

titles. Some of these books were firstwritten over 30 years ago but are stillgardening classics. His latest andlast book is "The Garden Throughthe Year", published this month.

"Like his mentor and idol, GertrudeJekyll, Mr. Thomas was somewhatretiring, but he enjoyed thefriendship and admhation of a vastcommunity of gardeners andplantsmen in Britain and the UnitedStates. He was always generous insharing his knowledge."Material taken from the TimesColonist 20 April03.

THE WEATHERWe can always rely on weather fordiscussion and guesswork, and I amalways talking about "the driest" or"the wettest" etc. For instance Feb.2003 was the driest in many years,and March the wettest bv far. Sowhat is next?

I came across an interesting tid-bit onthis sub.iect, in the Mid-AtlanticRhodo News, originally from theDallas Morning News."Tree-ring research has shown thatthe worst North American drought inthe last 2,000 years took place in the1500s and lasted 40-50 years. Notevery year was dr5r, but rainfall waswell below average for the period.Researchers say these

"megadroughts" have been regularoccrurences since the last ice age.Since the 1500s, the worst dry-weather period was the Dust Bowl ofthe 1930s." So why don't I shut up?

FUTURE PLANSWe have been advised by JimCadwaladr of the Milner Gardensand Woodland that plans areunderway for a Rhodo propagationprogram there. A survey ofrhodovarieties in Dist. I has been done byHarry Wright, and the next step isto choose a list ofrare hybrids andspecies from that list.

May,2003

Next is a practical propagation and withered by a late llost, but this treerelease program, so that rhodos will obligingly sets more buds to ensurebe available to Dist I members and its spring performance is adequate.the general public. An area at Milner Then, it sets a few flowersGardens can be developed fordisplay of the plants, leadingeventually to plans for a RhodoSpecies garden on Vancouver Island.

Present committee members includeDick Beamish of the NanaimoRhodo Society, Roy Taylor, Chairof Milner Gardens, Harry Wright ofNorth Island Rhodos and JimCadwaladr. I am sure we will behearing more from this group.

lVIAGNOLIASHave you seen the beautifulmagnolias in bloom in recent weeksin this area? Rose-Marie has kindlysent a Snippet, just in time.

The spring opf2003 has been cool,wet and late in Sayward. The cherryblossoms are several weeks behindschedule, the narcissus are loweredto the ground by the weight ofrainwater (so that the slugs can getinto the flower heads), the weather istoo wet for us to keep the grass tidy -much, indeed, to complain about.But dreariness is forgotten when myeyes are drawn to the white explosionof blossom that is the Star Magnolia(Magnolia stellata species). Thisamazing, shrubby little tree is alwaysthe highlight of springtime in mygarden. It blooms abundantly everyyear, and the blossoms last a longtime; it doesn't seem much botheredby rain or chilly nights, and on top ofthat, it is deliciously fragrant.

Magnolias are all, of course,magnificent. I grow as many as I canget my hands on, and have two largeM.x soulangeana specimens that viewith M. stellata for "Most splendidspring bloomers" honours. One ofthese is the named selection 'Rustica

Rubra', and it is one of the mostgrati$ing plants in my garden. True,the early flower buds are often

continuously throughout the summer,and then does a goodjob ofproducing a nearly-full bloom inSeptember. In contrast, my whitesoulangeana blooms only once, but itdoes that magnificently every year.

A series named the "Eight LittleGirls" are hybrids of M. liliflora andM. stellat4 and they have all won theRHS Award of Merit. So far I have4 of them, but they are still tiny. Myfirst aquisition was 'Susan', and lastyear was her first flowering in mygarden. I had been eagerly watchingthe tiny creature for hints of flowerbuds, and disappointingly concludedI would have to wait a few years.Then, with perhaps only a dozenleaves on a stem not more than 30"tall, 'Susan'proceeded to flauntenornous purple goblets, ultimately16 of them.

Her sisters, 'B"tty,' 'Randy'and'Ricki', are even smaller and wereplanted only last year, but I confess Iam expecting a similar show fromthem. The other 4 "Little Girls" are'Jane','Ann','Pinkie' and'Judy'; Ihope to have the entire family verysoon.

SNIPPETS FROM SAYWARI)Rose-Marie says--Prunus padus, the European BirdCherry, has long been a favorite feein my family. There is a mature treegrowing in the Hardwicke Islandgarden begun by my partlrer'sgrandmother, Gertrude Bendickson.She was Norwegian, and grew theHigg tree, as it is called inNorwegian, from seed brought fromNorway. Its generous bloom hasdelighted four generations ofBendicksons.

The bird cherry, however, is notwell-known to North American

gardeners. This white-floweredrelative of the ubiquitous ornamentalcherries is a humble wild tree inNorthern Europe, growing bystreamsides in open forests.

In May it produces very fragrantwhite flowers that make up for theirsmall size by appearing in abundantspikes. Small black cherries followbut are quickly eaten by birds-

The bird cherry is slightly conical inshape, it has respectable fall colour,and is vigorous and hardy, eventuallyreaching about 50 ft. in height. Itdevelops a more spreading habit wittrage. Propagation by seed isrecommended, and I have been ableto propagate it successfully fromcuttings as well. It is listed hardy toZone 3.

RHODOS rN BLOOM EARLYAPRILFirst we must talk about the weather -again. After a no winter winter, weat Oyster River had 330 mm rain inMarch, the most for at least the past20 years. Now it is April, and we arehaving wind and rain like youwouldn't believe. These are not"April showers". But by the time Ifinish this newsletter, who knows, theweather might have changed again,to a more respectable April type.

Meantime, some rhodos don't seemto care about the weather. Manypeople are praising their old R.Rosamundi (or is it R. ChristmasCheer?) Both are very old R.caucasicum hybrids, both bloom veryearly and are very hardy anddependable. Mine is still loaded withblooms, though the repeated freezingand rain during March turned someflowers brown.

Another early bloomer, with brightyellow flowers, is R. lutescens. Ifany of you Nursery dpes have someofthese, please phone JohnShaughnessy, 339-0052 as he is

May,2003

anxious to acquire one or more.

P.J.M is loaded with bright pinty-mauve flowers, and many of thesmaller-leaved purple-fl oweredplants are showing colour. Thatreminds me of the article I didn'tfinish last month, on reliable dwarfplants, for my R. Ginny Gee is alsoin fulIbloom. This plant is one ofWarren Berg's delightful littletreasures. She might be caught by alate spring frost, but the present raindoesn't bother her at all.

Patfy Bee: Small rounded foliage,frilly bell-shaped pink flowers, thisplant will spread sideweays to twiceits height. Hardy to -10F.

Wee Bee: Another bright, dainydwarf hardyto +5F. Leaves arethickly scaled, and the funnel-shapedflrowers have vivid red lobes withstrong red rays through the centre,shading to strong pink in the throat.

All the above information fromGreer's Guide and Cox's Guide toChoosing Rhodos.

Any of these little charmers will lookjust beautiful in masses, mixed withsome of "the blues" such as R.impeditum, keleticum, fastigiatum orslightly taller plants such as R. BlueChip, Blue Star or Blue Diamond.

You may have frouble finding theseplants in any but the specialistnurseries or our Rhodo Shows. Askone ofthe specialists on hand or visitone of our member nurseries.

WANDERINGS IN CHINAI found this material in the Oct. 1997"The Garden", journal of the RHS.E.H. Wilson wrote for the samejournal, Yo129,1904-05 "It hasbeen my good fortune, through theenterprises of Messrs. James Veitch& Sons, to spend some 5 years inChina in quest of new plants for ourgardens. My havels led me through

Southern, Central and WesternChina, and enabled me to see a gooddeal of one of the oldest and mostinteresting nations of the world....

As in the Himalays, so in WesternChina, Rhododendrons are a specialfeature. They begin at about 5,000ft, but do not get really abundantuntil 8,000 ft. is reached, and extendup to 14,500 ft. the limit of ligreousvegetation. They vary in size fromtrees 50 ft. to alpine plants only a fewinches high, and their flowers are ofall sizes and colours.

Rhodos are gregarious plants, andnearly every species has a well-defined altitudinal limit. IN June themountains are one mass of colour,and no finer sight can be imaginedthan miles and miles of thesemountain sides covered with rhodosin flower".

Ed. Note: How fortunate for us thatduring the past few years many rhodopeople and other travellers have beenable to visit these samemountainsides, and collect photosand seeds. As a result we have alarger variety than ever of beautifulrhodos to choose for our gardens.

I cannot think how the plants, so

willing to grow at 14,500 ft. on anAsian mountain, can adapt to sea-level on our coast. We are fortunateindeed.