Rhododendron Leaf Beauties
Rhododendrons have an astonishing diversity of foliage shape and form, particularly amongst the species.
Many have a covering of hairs on the leaves known as indumentum which varies in colour from near white to rich dark brown.
Rhododendron Foliage
Narrow Leaves: ‘Graziella’, Filigran, R. roxianum.
Blue-Grey foliage: R. pronum, R. oreotrephes, ‘Midsummer Mermaid’, ‘Intrifast’, Indigo Steel;
Red, bronze, purple Leaves: ‘Everred’, ‘Wine & Roses’, ‘Fireball’, ‘Klondkye’ (deciduous azaleas), ‘Marushka’ (winter foliage colour), R. lutescens.
Large Leaves: R. rex, R. macabeanum, R. sinogrande, R. sinofalconeri.
Silvery Leaves: R. bureavii, R. proteoides, R. pachysanthum, R. rex, ‘Ken Janeck’, ‘Viking Silver’, R. yakushimanum, ‘Golfer’.
Variegated Leaves: ‘Molten Gold’, ‘All Gold’, ‘Red and Gold’, ‘Girard’s Hotshot Variegated’.
Indumentum (hairs on the leaf underside) R. bureavii, R. taliense, ‘Sir Charles Lemon’, R. arboreum cinnamomeum.
Over the last 130 years Peter & Kenneth Cox have been working hard at raising hybrids with foliage with colour which persists all year round.
For silvery foliage, the species R. pachysanthum has been an obvious parent. Several hybridisers made the ‘yak-pachysanthum' cross and the first one we named was a Danish selection by Sven Hansen, now named ‘Viking Silver'.
Selections of R. oreotrephes raised from Chinese seed with particularly blue leaves has been named ‘Bluecalyptus' and 'Pentland'.
A significant breakthrough is the three Glendoick hybrids with red leaves Evered, Wine and Roses and Wondered (EU Plant Breeders Rights). These took 20 years of trialling and testing before they were put on sale to the public.
‘ALL GOLD’ H3-4 Med M Bright red. leaves bright yellow. Selected at Glendoick. Sport of 'Red and Gold'.
‘BLUECALYPTUS’ H4 Med. (selection of R. oreotrephes) glaucous foliage, pink-purple flowers.
EVERRED [‘85/1C’] H4 Semi-Dwf EM-M Dark red-purple flowers, April-May. Slow-growing dwarf: stunning leaves the colour of purple Cotinus or copper beech year-round. EU PBR.‘RED AND GOLD’ (Cornubia Variegated) H3 Med Kenneth Cox introduced this from New Zealand and named it. Red flowers and dramatic yellow and green leaves. The best variegated rhododendron.
FASTIGIATUM 'INDIGO STEEL' grey blue leaves all summer. Small purple flowers in Spring.
VIKING SILVER (yak x pachysanthum) H5 Low EM Pale pink in April-May, Silvery young growth all summer. Spectacular foliage plant.
WINE & ROSES ['PINK ROSEV'] (PBR) H4 Low EM-M Bright pink, fading to pale pink, in an open-topped truss. Leaves bronzy when young, with an amazing deep reddish-pink underside, visible from afar as the upward pointing leaves wave in the breeze. Very free-flowering.
WONDERRED [‘2008/7D’] H5 Low Dark red flowers in May. Very free flowering. Rich bronzy red young growth and a purple leaf underside. (‘85/1C’ x ‘Moser’s Maroon’)
