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Plant Portrait Rhododendron lapponicum By
Dick Steele Our
earliest lapponicum came
from seed collected on Mt. Washington, New Hampshire, in the early 1960’s
. Our selection BLWD 68-C has
been with us for 42 years and is of good habit, blooms well
and has been very durable. It was used as the pollen parent on a dauricum
x carolinianum hybrid. The plants in that cross grew very tall with
quite small leaves, surprisingly linear in aspect, suggesting that carolinianum
had influenced the height very substantially, and that lapponicum had
expressed strong influence in the leaf structure. This seemed odd in this
primary cross. The F2 generation is somewhat lower
in stature, the leaves are a bit more variable and some clear light pinks
have arisen. The stature in a number of cases is light in structure and
because of the fineness of the branches it sometimes appears that the blooms
are floating free of the plant. The F3 generation are showing again
the influence of carolinianum; they are thicker stemmed and although
quite a number are coming very clear in colour, the majority are showing
purples and magenta shades – they are all a fun group to play with. We have since collected
R. lapponicum from quite
wide ranging areas in Newfoundland and Labrador
where lapponicum has in all cases been found only on limestone
sites. We have been very negligent in that although
we are always intending to check the pH in the actual root area in
which the plant is growing ,we are always so enthralled with the
magnificence of the area in which they grow
that we forget our responsibilities
and just rejoice in the luxuriant freedom of it all.
We apologize for this but doubt if we will change. It is anticipated that a number of these collections will be planted in a protected section of the Rhododendron & Native Plant Society’s Test and Evaluation Site at Lake Centre in 2008. |