January, 2000 Meeting

by Evelyn Weesjes

In a short talk, Al Smith shared with us his 12 years of experience growing 400 varieties of heathers in his specialty alpine garden.

Although we usually lump these fall and winter blooming plants as heathers, they are really divided into heath (Erica) with individual narrow spreading leaves, and heathers (Calluna) with closely packed tiny leaves. While heather blooms in late summer and fall, the heaths are either winter and spring or summer flowering.

In BC there is a Heather Society to which Al belongs and several years ago a group of their members together with the Heather Farm (David Wilson) at Sardis arranged to import a large number of cuttings of new varieties from a specialist nursery in Britain. These varieties and others are available at the yearly sale by the Heather Society at the Horticulture Center of the Pacific in spring.

Heathers are available from dwarfs at 2-3 inches tall to tree-like forms up to 10 feet. They like a sandy peat moss mixture that drains well and, when newly planted, should be watered until established. Al fertilizes his plants yearly and trims the more straggly varieties to remove the old flowers.

Al showed a number of slides of his plants and recommended some varieties as outstanding. Spring flowering Erica darleyensis varieties with long flower spikes grow about 2 feet tall and spread to fill a wide area. Also spring flowering is Erica ‘W.T. Rackliff’ at 2 feet with white flowers and ‘Irish Dusk’ with rosy flowers and bronzy leaves, also a tall plant. Summer blooming Erica cinerea varieties are very showy and Al recommended ‘Wendy’, ‘Rose Queen’ and ‘Windelbrooke’, the latter with yellow to orange-red foliage. In the fall blooming heathers (Calluna), Al mentioned ‘Peter Sparkes’ with long spikes of double pink flowers and ‘Corbetts Red’ with bright red flowers. Highly recommended was Erica mackaiana ‘Shining Light’ which is fairly low growing with masses of white flowers.

There are tree-like heaths which grow from 4-10 feet tall and these include Erica arborea and its variety ‘Estrella Gold’ 3-4 feet tall and with white flowers. Erica lusitanica is normally not hardy here but it has a golden form which appears to be hardy. There is also a large group of sub-tropical South African heathers which have large showy flowers but unfortunately they are not hardy outdoors here.

Al mentioned that in several cases where old heather plantings were renewed, the new plants did not thrive. However Al has not found this to be the case in his garden and he suspects that his results are due to his program of fertilization.

“Growing Rhododendrons on the Atlantic Coast”

Carol Dancer, now a member of the Victoria Chapter, has extensive experience growing rhododendrons in two gardens she developed in Halifax and Dartmouth in Nova Scotia. In her talk she disproved the widely held belief that rhododendrons are difficult to grow on the Canadian east coast.

Twenty or thirty years ago there were hardy hybrids, mostly with R. catawbiense blood in them and not very inspiring, in parks and gardens in the south shore area of Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia is home to R. canadense which is found around lakes and boggy areas and at one time also to R. maximum.

Carol described their winter extremes as going down to –20C for short periods although the last four winters have been mild. However there can be dramatic swings in temperature over short periods and this is very hard on the plants. Most damage is done in March when the ground is frozen and the sun is warm enough to cause desiccation resulting in defoliation.

The Canadian Rhododendron Society members had little choice of plants locally and had to go first to eastern American nurseries and then to Briggs nursery in Washington State which supplied hundreds of plants to them. Carol credits Captain Richard Steele, who in his travels developed a love for rhododendrons, and did so much in the last 20 or more years by introducing new varieties to Halifax area and in starting the Canadian Rhododendron Society. Others credited with developing rhododendron gardens and hybridizing suitable varieties for the region are Walter Ostrom, John Weagle and Dr. Donald Craig.

Carol showed slides of her and other members’ gardens. Walter Ostrom’s garden is windswept and very rocky. His specialty is the Lapponicum species which he grows well in soil pockets between the rocks but he also has larger plants such as R. dauricum, R. vaseyi and R. yakushimanum. In her garden Carol found that members of the Pontica and Taliensia sections do very well. Also shown were companion plants such as Pulsatilla vulgaris, Meconopsis, which self-sows, Hellebore, and Asiatic primulas, the choice one being P. sikkimensis. Magnolia ‘Betty’, Pieris ‘Brower’s Beauty’, Viburnum plicatum ‘Mariesii’ and the bamboo Sinoarundinaria murieliae (in a sheltered spot) all grew well.

Few evergreen azaleas are hardy there and John Weagle is using R. kaempferi hybrids in breeding hardier varieties. In rhododendron hybrids they have good yellow varieties but a really good hardy red is still being sought. They are also breeding R. fortunei with hardy kinds to get larger flowers. Captain Steele also has a collection of these hybrids in his woodland garden among his other treasures. Carol showed a very nice pink as her contribution using R. smirnowii as a parent.

An ambitious project Captain Steele and other members have undertaken is the development of a rhododendron planting in Pine Grove Park near Liverpool and owned by a large company. This is a forest of mature Eastern White pine with a forest floor carpeted with native plants such as Clintonia, Cornus canadensis, Epigaea repens, Cypripedium, Pyrola and ferns. In keeping with the natural setting, rhododendrons such as ‘P.J.M.’, R. maximum and R. schlippenbachii have been introduced. Captain Steele is trying to reintroduce R. maximum as a native plant.

In a relatively short time, members of the Canadian Rhododendron Society have demonstrated that it is indeed not difficult to grow rhododendrons on the south shores of Nova Scotia and now it is not uncommon to see hundreds of these plants in their gardens.

Thanks, Carol for properly informing us.