MAIL BAG

RETURN to HOMEPAGE

Subj: European Chapters

Could you advice me how to join some of the ARS European Chapters?

Best regards

Petr Schwott

VITROLAB, Zeleneč, CZECH REPUBLIC

[Editor replied about European Chapters and ARS membership]

Thank you for such prompt and informative answer. I wonder there is not a German Chapter. I consider them as great hobbyists and best European rhododendron breeders.

My interest in Rhododendrons started as a hobby, after graduation and professionalization, it has shifted to a job. I established a rather small family owned plant tissue culture laboratory. We are producing Rhodos by micropropagation in vitro. Our assortment represents 17 elepidotes (Czech and German hybrids), one williamsianum (August Lamken), 4 R. yakushimanums, 12 Knapp-Hill and Exbury deciduous azaleas and numerous R. obtusums and R. impeditums (which are produced by microcuttings, not TC.

I have to admit I don’t know a lot about planting and growing adult plants. I could share just some knowledge I gained through experimentation with vitro-plant growth and their acclimatization at greenhouse conditions. If you consider something above mentioned would be interesting for your readers, let me know, please

Best regards

Petr Schwott

RETURN to Top of Page

Subj: Kansas City area chapter?

Is there a Kansas City area chapter and how can I contact them?

Kathleen O'Brien-Blair

RETURN to Top of Page

Subj: Rhododendron ‘Holden’

From:

We were given a rhody. Holden is on the tag. We do not know what color or size rhody to expect. We have not yet planted it; it is still in the container. Do you know anything about Holden? I live in Western Washington approximately half way between Tacoma and Seattle on the East Hill of Kent.

The web sites are great.

Thank you.

Nancey Perry

[Nancey was answered and told about ARS chapters in her area.]

 Subj:  Send your newsletter

I would like to join the Rhododendron society.

Thank you for your prompt reply and the newsletter information. I look forward to joining the Society. I reside in Montclair, New Jersey where an old friend of mine introduced me to rhododendrons. Perhaps you knew of him. His name was Howard Van Vleck. His home is now a historic property and part of the Montclair Foundation. There are wonderful rhododendron hybrids that he cultivated. Thank you for your help.

Ben Safirstein

RETURN to Top of Page

Subj:  Gardener

Hello,

I am a horticulture major at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. And I am very interested in growing the best azaleas and rhododendrons. Please inform me of any type of newsletter. Thanks. Great Website!!

Paul Darr

Chattanooga, TN

Subj:  Newsletter

Please send me notices of your newsletter. Just starting our garden and would appreciate the information.

Sincerely,

Dr. Rhonda VanMeter

Elgin, South Carolina

RETURN to Top of Page

Subj: We are new in this hobby

We are living in the southern part of Argentine, in Comodoro Rivadavia City. The last Saturday we bought a rhododendron plant. It is too expensive (70 dolares). We wish to know special considerations about the care of rhododendron. The daily climate here is generally cold, windy and cloudy. We have some days with good temperature. Today was a sunny day with 30% of humidity and a temperature of 24 grades. This year we have a good fall, but the winter and spring are not so. We will await your notice. Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Carlos A. Torres Tarling

RETURN to Top of Page

Subj: Information about J. Lounsbery Publication

To Betty Spady: I am looking for the email address of J. Lounsbery, formerly of the Horticultural Research Institute of Ontario (Vineland Station). I think he is an active member of the ARS. I am trying to track down a copy of his 1991 publication, RHODODENDRONS AND AZALEAS, Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Ontario (Publication 45). If you have his e-mail address, please forward this message to him with a request that he advises me where and how I can obtain a copy of this publication.

Paul Armstrong

After receiving this editor’s email, Nicholas Yarmoshuk writes: Yes I can help. It's Jim Lounsbery who lives in Vineland, Ontario. Jim is the co-author with me and Bob Fleming of the article on HRIO that appears on our Website and also in the ARS Journal number that precedes the 1998 Convention issue. As far as I can tell Jim doesn't have an e-mail address, I'll send a copy of it as a series of jpg files, which can be printed on the printer. You should get them sometime this afternoon. You should know that the item is out of print and original copies are collectors' items.

You may be interested in the web site shown below. It does not have the Publication 45 on it yet, but it will within about a week.
http://www.rhododendron.org/niagara

Nicholas Yarmoshuk, RSC Niagara Region, ARS District 12

Subj: ‘George L. Taber’ azalea

Hi from Georgia, where the azaleas are blooming like mad this year!

I have six very vigorous and enormous ‘George L. Taber’ azaleas in the back yard. They are probably about 15 years old. It is mentioned in Hastings "Gardening in the South" as a good variety for our area, and lots of them are for sale here locally. It may be a locally developed hybrid that does particularly well here. (Mine sure do!) The plants are going like gangbusters, and I have them on a regular fertilizing schedule. I thinned/pruned back selectively last year and it seems to have set them off like a rocket, since I can hardly see the leaves for the blooms right now.

My question: These plants have always thrown one or two very dark purple flowers here and there, but over the past two seasons one of the plants has sent out a single limb that has only pure white flowers on it, with one small, faint pink blotch speckled with green in the throat. What is this? Is it a throwback to an ancestor, or just a random thing? Can I propagate it? Should I? And what do I call the new plant if I do?

I'll try propagating them this fall when the stems harden off a little. There aren't any really good white Indicums available in our area, and I've always wanted some - so I'll give it a try! (May wind up having to move them, like I did two rhododendrons that I grew from cuttings at our old house. The real estate broker was amused when I excluded them from the contract.)

Thanks for your help. I love azaleas but don't know much about them other than what I've read in various books. Martha Glisson

Subj: My Interest in Rhododendrons

Hi Betty,

My name is Mike and I live in Tyne & Wear, England (near the Lake District approximately 90miles). I visited your Website and saw that you email articles regarding Rhododendron culture etc. I would be grateful to be added to that list with any information /pictures that you have

Many Years ago my parents would take me camping on Holiday to the lake district. We often went for walks, and they would marvel at the glorious Rhodies that grew very well there. From an early age I could recognize one immediately. We often visit Cragside in Rothbury Northumberland. I think the views there are quite amazing.

About 2 1/2 years ago I bought a house (where I live presently). The garden is very small, only about 30 square yards including the paths! The soil is (was) atrocious. It had the usual builders’ rubble and bricks, gigantic lumps of concrete AND MOST OF ALL, TONS OF DOLOMITE HARD-CORE!!!

Yes you can well imagine the scene .I had in mind a plan of a good few medium-sized Rhodies for my garden. A lot can be seen in gardens quite close to me. Our local park, which is only four minutes walk away, has some whoppers that have been there for as long as anyone knows.

So I remember going into my garden which looked as if all the previous owners had never touched it at all. There were no shrubs or perennials at all - only a few weeds, and driving my spade/fork into it only to be met with an unearthly "thunk." Yes, I had come across what I thought was a DOLOMITE quarry only about one inch below the surface. Everywhere that I dug was the same horrible yellow sticky Dolomite hard-core. All local Builders use it, I have noticed, on everything. I tested the pH of the surrounding soil. To my shock and horror, I discovered that it was nearly 8.6. I was rather annoyed to say the least. Nevertheless, I did a lot of reading at my local library and decided to do something about it. I spent many months of hard, back breaking work digging much of the horrible dolomite out and replacing it with good quality topsoil that I had managed to come by from local building excavations. Over the months I improved it with plenty of leaf mould, manure, sand and peat. I lined a large pit with plastic sacking, hopefully, to stop side leaching of dolomite from surrounding paths and foundations. I then added amounts of sulphur and iron sulphate. (Working in a lab for 10 years helped a lot with the chemistry involved.) I achieved a final pH of just under 5.1, which I settled for. Nearly a year later the pH has hardly moved.

I have planted the following:

• ‘Pink Pearl’ (which I adore for the flower colour, quantity and quality) but, alas, the leaves are not what I would call beautiful;
• ‘Praecox’ which is nearly past its flowering period;
• ‘Lord Roberts’ which looks as if it will bloom prolifically this year (as it didn't last year);
• ‘Scarlet Wonder’ which performed well last year;
• A Yak hybrid which when I bought it was labeled "Yakushimanum Species Parent" only to find that when it bloomed last year wasn't pink/white as hoped but a deep-red colour instead!
• A few small Rhodies that our local supermarket was selling only as unnamed varieties. I liked the leaf tone and shape so I bought them at only £ 2.29 each, which I think, is quite a bargain. One has grown very well this past year and is budded up very well. I can hardly wait to see what colour the blooms are and truss size etc. My patience hopefully will be rewarded!
• Last but not least I have a small amount of common ponticum, salvaged from a local nature reserve that is trying to eradicate it! I know it is a common sight everywhere, but I like it. I like purple, and it seems fairly strong so why not?

Mike Parkin

RETURN to Top of Page

Subj: R & A News email address

Hi,

My name is Diane Taylor Hayes. I had the pleasure yesterday of hearing and meeting both Dr. August Kehr and Mr. Ed Collins at a lecture at Converse College, Spartanburg, SC. I am interested in azaleas primarily, but rhodos, too.

Thanks for sending the announcements about the new issues of R & A. News.

Diane Taylor Hayes

Subj: Greetings from Down Under

From: (Marina Moodycliffe)

Hi Betty and Herb,

Greetings from Down Under. We met you at Woolongong and in the Molly Smith Garden in'97, whilst travelling with Peter Schick. Now we meet again in Cyberland! Perhaps you will make it to the Australian Rhododendron Conference in Y2K. We are happy to enroll with our email address. We are in touch with Dick and Karen Cavender and are trying to grow some Rh. occidentale and other deciduous azaleas from seed. Is there a good list serve on Rhodos operating over there?

Kind Regards,

Ron and Marina Moodycliffe

Subj: Rhododendron

Je suis en France et maintenant vous avez mon adresse email.  Merci pour votre documentation.

J. COUNE

[I am in France and now you have my email address. Thank you for your documentation. Translated by H. Spady.]

RETURN to Top of Page

Comments, suggestions and contribution may be emailed to: bettyspady@AOL.com

GO TO