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Rhododendron Gardens

© Kirk Johnson

From the middle of the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century, the British have dominated the gardening world. The English landscape garden, as it developed under Capability Brown, was composed of grass, water and native trees. Cedars of Lebanon were the only non-native trees which were commonly planted. This austere attitude frustrated people who wanted collections of plants, and by the late eighteenth century it became increasingly fashionable to grow non-native plants in landscape gardens.

Huge numbers of plants were introduced to Great Britain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It became fashionable for estates to contain a number of specialized gardens, such as rose gardens and herb gardens. The earliest of these specialized gardens was the "American" garden. "American" gardens were collections of magnolias, kalmias, rhododendrons and other peat loving plants. American rhododendrons and magnolias were introduced earlier than their Asian cousins. The first American rhododendron to be grown in these "American" gardens was Rhododendron maximum, introduced in 1736 by Peter Collinson. Peter was a Quaker who had a partnership with an American plant collector named John Bartram. Peter financed John's plant collecting expeditions by selling American plants to British gardeners. Rhododendron catawbiense grows along the banks of the Catawba river in North Carolina, where it was discovered in 1809 by John Frasier and his son when they were collecting plants for the Emperor Paul of Russia. It was soon being grown in "American" gardens.

These were not the first rhododendrons to be grown in British gardens. The first introduction was Rhododendron hirsutum, which was introduced from the Alps of Central Europe in 1656. Rhododendron ferrugineum (the Alpine Rose) was introduced from Switzerland around 1740 and Rhododendron Ponticum was introduced from Spain in 1763. Rhododendron caucasicum was introduced from Turkey in 1803.

The first Asian Rhododendron to be introduced was Rhododendron arboreum from the Himalayas. Its seed was sent to England in 1811 and it first flowered in 1825. All of these species were grown in the "American" gardens. "American" gardens had never been purely American, they were collections of plants which were grouped together because they shared similar environmental and cultural needs. As increasing numbers of Asian rhododendrons and magnolias were introduced,the "American" garden died a slow death. By the First World War very few of the British talked about "American" gardens; they talked about having a woodland garden or a rhododendron garden.

There are over 600 species of Rhododendron and there are rhododendron flowers in every color except true blue; all blue rhododendrons are at least slightly lavender. Out of these species, plant breeders have created thousands of hybrids. The main advantage of hybrids is that you are combining the genes of two plants which evolved in different environments, so hybrids tend to be more adaptable than species.