Rhododendron 'JG004'

Description:
Beautiful trumpet shaped blooms come in clusters at the branch tips. The flowers, though intensely fragrant, are also very sticky. Mature shrubs are only 1.2 meters tall with an equal spread. Very open and graceful form in dappled shade.

Notes:
This deciduous azalea is part of a rhododendron collection established decades ago by the late Ted and Mary Grieg, renouned plants people who imported from around the world. There is the odd surviving old tin label wrapped around a branch where the faded writing state not a name but an aquisition code. The Griegs found it worthy enough to enjoy in their own garden.

Cultivation:
Traditionally propagated by surface sowing under glass and keeping moist, there are always less bulky, alternate ways of starting Rhododendrons from seed. Generally seed doesn't need any pretreatment. Full a 15 cm deep nursery pot with a sterile medium of equal parts of finely milled peat moss, sand, and loam. Sow thinly! Mix seed with a small amount of sand, evenly disperse seed over the surface of the medium (not too much sand as seed need light to germinate) and tamp firm. Direct sunlight will fry seedlings, an artifical light source is best. Keep moist using fine mist as heavy droplets will dislodge delicate seedling roots; use a plastic cover for greater success. Germinate at 20 C and you should see sprouts emerging within 3 months. When at their 3-4 true leaf stage prick out and transplant seedling. Seedlings cannot tolerate winter temps in their first year so its best to place them in a unheated greenhouse or cold frame. Protect seedlings from nibbling varmits. Seed germinates within 3 months.