Venerable giants’ royal show
AS a fourhectare woodland garden, the Rhododendron Dell in Dunedin Botanic Garden has the space to allow larger rhododendrons to grow to their full potential. These old monarchs generate much of the splendour throughout the dell, growing alongside the tallest trees, not quite at the same height but certainly connecting with the trees’ lower branches. One of the most magnificent rhododendron displays comes into view on the corner of the Arboreum Walk at the southwest exit from the Azalea Garden.
Two specimens of Rhododendron ‘Halopeanum’, which were obviously among the first rhododendrons to be planted more than 100 years ago, dominate the corner where they grow and are now more than 8m tall and 11m across.
Virtually smothered in blooms, their combined mass when in full flower resembles a groundlevel cumulus cloud. When staff lead tours down from the Azalea Garden, they often have to wait for visitors’ gasps of awe at the spectacle of the pink buds and white flowers of R. ‘Halopeanum’ to subside, before continuing. As the flowers mature, a flush of pink around the margins of the petals gradually fades to pure white (but with a speckling of light pink on the upper petals) and reveals why it has also been named R. ‘White Pearl’.
Even when the blooms fade, these are impressive plants. In fact, their broad boles, carrying solid yet sinuous branches, remind us why rhododendrons are known as ‘‘King of Shrubs’’.
Garden Life is produced by Dunedin Botanic
Garden. For further information contact Doug Thomson.