The April Meeting 2006

by Margaret deWeese

The April meeting had a splendid program:  from Norma Buckley's enthusiastic talk on how to prepare for the Show and Sale, to Dr. Ned Brockenbrough's talk on his hybridizing odyssey, to a visual rich dessert of the Brockenbrough's lake side garden [Lake Washington that is]. We thank them both and Joyce and Don Whittle for hosting our U.S. friend, and to all who opened their gardens to him.

Ned began his talk by stating that naming and registering hybrids must come from an improvement over the parent plants in at least one significant way. The process usually takes five to seven years to bloom, and ten years to really know if you have a good one. He made us laugh by saying as a child he began by hybridizing the Morning Glory. His first successful rhododendron cross was a R. fastigiatum x R. augustinii, which showed in a beautiful delphinium-blue rhododendron still blooming in his garden today. 

He married Jean McClure, daughter of a pioneer hybridist, Don McClure who belonged to the Rum Dum group of hybridizer celebrities in the PNW with Halfdan Lem, Warren Berg, Bill Whitney, Karl Sifferman, Ben Nelson, Hjalmer Larson, Ed Dunn and others. Ned gives them credit for his successes in producing upon their work. Primarily he used R. yakushimanum crossed with Lem's hybrids, stating that a hybrid with 25% R. yakushimanum makes a good plant or second generation yak crosses. One of his early prize winners was  R. yakushimanum x fabia/yak x ’Hello Dolly. His  R.’Bambino registered in 1988 and with a complicated parentage;  he had reproduced in tissue culture [making many thousands] to use as a fund raiser for the Children's Hospital in Seattle. The rhododendron ’Bambino seems to get better every year in the garden!

Ned stated the ‘yellows’ last a long time compared to other colours. In 1976 he had flowers on a yet unnamed rhododendron [ R. ’Lems Cameo x ’Hotei] when he was asked if he had a rhododendron to name after the wife of then present Governor Evans of Washington. The unnamed rhododendron became the best seller ’Nancy Evans! One of my personal favourites was an unnamed one R. ’Hotei x yak whose petals looked like they had been sprayed with platinum gold. His cross R. ’Hotei x R.’Tropicana produced a lot of variation. He gave away seedlings which grew and were named, amongst which were Paprika Spice and Apricot Fantasy. His set up in his basement was interesting to the would-be hybridist. Trays of milled sphagnum for the seed, then pricking out the seedlings with a few leaves [about 200 in number] and selecting only 25. Then by the end of the first year only 18 to a flat. These are fed with a dilute alfalfa tea 1 gram to 1 litre of water. The compound in the alfalfa gives 50% better growth.

His love for his family and the obvious joy reflected in their faces showed us the measure of the man. He is now hoping his son, a nephrology specialist returning from his studies, will carry on the third generation of hybridizing. One of his ingenious inventions has been adopted by rhododendron chapters. The truss carrier of narrow gauge PVC pipes, separated into two water-carrying sides with a handle, can carry up to ten ‘whopper size’ flower trusses easily in the car without damage.  When Captain Lem died in 1969, his widow, Anna, showed Ned some of his carefully guarded hybrids. Anna called them whoppers! R. ’Cameo x ’Loderi King George [Ned called it ’Anna and crossed it with R.’Kilimanjaro which resulted in Horizon Garnet. Another beauty is R.’'Nancy Evans x ’Cameo x ’Skipper which produced R.’Horizon Lakeside. 

Ned gave the explanation of polyploids and tetraploids. Normally organisms are diploid,or have two copies of parent chromosomes. But when there is an aberration or an unusual cell division, there can be more chromosome sets in the nucleus, hence Polyploidy. Within the term Polyploidy, names are given to denote how many sets, so triploid means three sets, tetraploid four sets etc. This leads to difficult reproduction and sometimes no reproduction at all. August Kehr had his ’Point Defiance bloom in 1985. This magnificent rhododendron has more than usual number of chromosomes, so Ned's cross using Point Defiance resulted in only six seedlings. The leaves are thicker and rounded but Ned has worked on trying to get a rhododendron truss with a good flare. 

We were then treated to a number of his bonsai collection, which he keeps on his deck overlooking Lake Washington. What beautiful and artistic work! The Japanese Satsuki azaleas in full bloom caught the eye, but his green bonsai were even more breathtaking. We were particularly touched by seeing a mounded R. radicans which Halfdan Lem had found in Ketchikan, Alaska and kept aboard his fishing boat. 

And to top it all off, the slide presentation of the Brockenbrough Lakeside home gave us a musically accompanied vision of Rhododendron Heaven. When I invited Ned to speak to the club in either April or May, he replied that it would have to be April as he spends May in the garden. And no wonder!!