In the red
TO celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Rhododendron Society, Caerhays Castle, Cornwall, is introducing a new variety, Red Centurion. Years in the making, the beautiful, deep-red bloom—a cross between the Elizabeth and Charles Michael varieties—has been officially recognised and registered with the RHS ahead of the garden’s reopening on February 20 (www.caerhays.co.uk; 01872 501310).
The estate’s 120 acres are famously home to more than 600 varieties of magnolia, as well as camellias, azaleas, acers and evergreen oaks, many sourced by 19th-century planthunters in the remote mountainous regions of China.
The Rhododendron Society—now called The Rhododendron, Camellia & Magnolia Group—was jointly founded in 1916 by J. C. Williams, the great-grandfather of the estate’s current owner, and Caerhays’s Burncoose Nurseries, from which dozens of varieties and hybrids are sold, is now one of the biggest plant mail-order businesses in the UK.