I’ve had a thing for Rhododendrons for quite some time. What’s not to like? Dark evergreen leaves on a dense, nicely formed shrub that will add interest year round to your gardens. Top that off with spectacular, showy trusses of flowers in the spring and you have the ideal shrub. Here in Vermont however, I find myself on the borderland of where these captivating plants can be successfully grown. But maybe frontier is a better description - a place where limits are tested and new ideas in plant breeding reveal possibility. The old standard, in every garden center, hardy Rhododendron - typified by Rhododendron ‘Roseum Elegans’ with its mauve colored flowers - were about the only “Rhody” you would see in landscapes north of Massachusetts. But starting in the mid 1980’s, I began a quest to learn about what other options existed in the serious Rhododendron collector’s world. I soon found there were several dedicated enthusiasts who were working, sometimes for their entire careers, at developing new forms that are adaptable to more northern climes. The photos below of some of these varieties planted in our garden over the last nearly 40 years will give one a sense of the possibilities.

A sampler of Rhododendron flowers from the exceptional 2021 season. With a minimum winter low of only -10F, and an abundant bud set in 2020, almost all the cultivars in the LHBG collection bloomed profusely .