Make Rhododendrons Think They Are Growing in the Himalayas

Ron Knight March 2005

Speaker’s Biography

Ron , a retired biology teacher and school administrator, has just completed a two-year term as president of the Vancouver Rhodo Society. Ron has been a guest speaker at rhododendron and other garden clubs throughout the region. He and his wife Carla have created Caron Gardens on BC’s Sunshine Coast. In this one-acre woodland garden on Hotel Lake, they display over 400 different rhododendrons, sell plants, and teach a variety of gardening courses. Visit Caron Gardens’ website at: www3.telus.net/rcknight

For many listeners it was a pleasant awakening to learn that our delightful BC coastal environment could emulate the famous Himalayan home of the great rhododendrons of the world.

Ron Knight commenced his talk by taking us up the slopes of the Salween Valley in China’s Yunnan province, home of some 200 rhodo species, ranging from the forests of veritable trees to the dense concentrations of the smaller varieties, exposed at high altitudes. Fine examples of each rhodo species were provided from the collected photographs of Clive Justice.

From this tour, we were able to choose the key features of that region from a written list. With some triumph, even the novices amongst us were able to select the ideal conditions: protection from intense sun and wind, high humidity, abundant rainfall, covered soil surface of shallow depth, with an acid pH and superior drainage. And Lo! All of these ‘Himalayan’ features either exist or can be contrived in the breadth of our own Rhodoland. In proper schoolmasterly fashion, Ron then helped us to design this ‘rhodo heaven’. The essentials include best time to plant, (November to March); treatment of the root ball (soak, slash and plant high in a broad, square depression); mulch well with coarse, unsifted media, but not up the stem; water diligently and if on a slope dam it well below to retain water; test the site pH (buy a pH pen); and consider sending your soil off for analysis to water diligently and if on a slope dam it well below determine micronutrient needs. Such ‘soil psychiatry’ will ensure vibrant health of the rhodos and a happy mental state for the gardener. A few ‘don’ts’ were issued: refrain from tamping the mulch cover, avoid cultivating the surrounds lest the roots be savaged, and ban the bone meal.

In all, this well illustrated lesson will have increased the confidence of fledgling rhodo growers, and confirmed the satisfaction of the experienced brigade who no doubt marvelled at their own instinctive knowledge of these essential elements of the craft.

In the 5 minute program, Agnes Lynn presented a dramatic slide presentation the ‘before and after’ sections of her garden. In the beginning, some twenty years ago, she and her husband, David, recorded the ordinary conditions of a suburban-lawned lot and then, gradually, each part of their property was transformed into a luxuriant garden scene. Special plantings enhanced their privacy finally obscuring their house from the road; a beautiful Japanese style bridge, built by David, increased the visual aspect of the bog garden as well as providing a safer passage to many admiring visitors and the hard working gardener herself! Over time, the drab sections of lawn disappeared, an ill-placed horse chestnut tree was banished and a brilliant garden emerged.