Just popping out to trim the rhododendron ...don’t wait up!

At more than 40ft wide and 30ft high, this rhododendron brings a whole new meaning to flower power.

the enormous plant dwarfs those who come to marvel at its size and stunning pink flowers.

It’s safe to say it has definitely outgrown the expectations of Victorian explorer Frederick Du Cane Godman, pictured, the man who planted a small bud in the gardens of the South Lodge Hotel in Horsham, West Sussex – 120 years ago.

the ‘Old Cornish Red’ is now Britain’s widest single stemmed rhododendron, and attracts visitors from around the world.

Normally rhododendrons, which were introduced to the UK from the Alps in the 18th century, only grow between three and six feet high.

‘It has re-rooted itself over the years as it has grown and the branches have touched the ground, so that is how it has spread so much,’ said the hotel’s head gardener Paul Collins.

‘It is very unusual because you normally find lots of rhododendrons planted together but this is just one on its own on the lawn.

‘It could be more than 40ft now, I would say closer to 50ft.’

Mr Collins said tourists often travel to the hotel just to look at the rhododendron.

‘It really is so impressive, especially when it is in full flower like it is now,’ he said.

‘It’s in full bloom for two or three weeks a year, with pinky-red blossoms and it just looks spectacular.

‘It really makes you stop and go “ooh” when you see it, and I know we have had some tourists from Holland come in recently just to see the rhododendrons.

‘It’s been in flower for about two weeks now so we have just one week left of it looking like this.’

Cambridge scholar Mr Du Cane Godman, whose family bought the hotel and its grounds in several stages from 1883, was fascinated with nature and zoology.

the explorer, who died in 1919, travelled the world compiling a natural history classification of 50,263 species and gathered a large collection of rare orchids, alpine plants and magnolias with his second wife Dame Alice, who shared his love of horticulture.

the couple planted rhododendron hybrids throughout the South Lodge grounds together. Commenting on the giant shrub, David Alderman, director of the tree Register of Great Britain, said: ‘If it is one single plant then it is indeed the widest spreading we know of, although we know of taller and probably much larger girthed specimens of rhododendron.’