Rhododendron ‘Christmas cheer’
If you walk to the Bear Pit you cannot miss this stunning flowering rhododendron by the side of the path. At an eventual height and spread around 2m after 20 years, this dense shrub is covered in spectacular flowers with 8 or so in a cluster and trusses 4.5cm long. The flowers start pink in bud, then open to pretty blush pink flowers which fade almost to white. It is exceptionally free flowering and possibly the best early flowering hardy hybrid. The leaves are medium green, brown beneath from a very fine indumentum. Hardy down to -15C, this plant has an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society.
A member of the Ericaceae it needs a moist but well drained acid soil. Requiring a sheltered site in partial shade, it is ideal for many garden situations. Like many evergreen shrubs it is fairly low maintenance with little pruning needed, perhaps cutting back after flowering to maintain shape, and dead heading. Annual mulching always helps keep the soil in a good condition. Propagation is usually done by semi-ripe cuttings in the late summer or layering in the autumn.
An old hybrid, this variety is one of the first to flower in February/March and used to be forced in the greenhouse and presented as a magnificent Christmas table decoration, hence its name. In mild weather and in the south-west, it can flower by Christmas.
This hybrid is of garden origin and was raised in 1895 by T. Methven & Son of Edinburgh but its parentage is only partially known: Rhododendron caucasicum x unknown. R. caucasicum is a tough plant growing at 1,800 -2,700 metres in dense scrub at or above the tree line and a native of the Caucasus, Russian Armenia and north-eastern Asiatic Turkey. Its ecology contributes to its unique and robust characteristics giving it the strength to face the challenges of early flowering in frost prone conditions.
R. caucasicum is the parent of many hardy, early-flowering hybrids of which the best-known are the crosses with R. arboreum and their offspring (grex Nobleanum). Others are of more complex origin. Although R. caucasicum was introduced into cultivation in 1803 and its hybrids are widespread in gardens, the true species is now hardly ever seen.
