Tales of the Rose Tree: Ravishing Rhododendrons and Their Travels Around the WorldA wild and wonderful exploration of the history of the Rhododendron, a plant coveted, traded and stolen for thousands of years. bark on sculptured trunks to the delicate potted azalea on the garden patio, almost everyone has a rhododendron within reach of their daily lives. But who knows anything about this mysterious plant? dizzying heights of its natural habitat in the Sino-Himalayas by avaricious British collectors. Some of the species mutated; others proved hardy and easy to hybridise. Today the rhododendron has made a greater impact on the English landscape than any other plant. some say thousands, of years (the dove returning to Noah's ark was, apparently, carrying the leaf of a rhododendron).The Aztecs favoured it for their pleasure gardens (although the Jesuits believed they discovered it); the Chinese use it in medicines; mariners used it as ballast cargo; it has excited royal passions (Edward Prince of Wales surrounded himself with them at Virginia Water in the 1920s) and been the source of personal feuds (in the Rhododendron Society). After the First World War the government thought enough of the plant to fill Windsor Great Park with them in order to cheer up the nation. ancient beauty forced to exist out of its natural habitat? Jane Brown ultimately asks: What is the rhododendron for? |
Contents
A Rose by Another Name | 1 |
Sinograndes Story | 24 |
The Kings Botanists Tale | 62 |
Copyright | |
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Tales of the Rose Tree: Ravishing Rhododendrons and Their Travels Around the ... Jane Brown No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
acres American amongst arboreum Bagshot Bartram beautiful became Bodnant botanists British Caerhays camellias catawbiense century Charles China Chinese collection collectors Collinson colour Cornwall crimson dalhousiae dendron drons Edinburgh Botanics evergreen Exbury exotic falconeri famous favourite feet flora flowers Frank Kingdon Ward genus George Argent George Forrest Gertrude Jekyll green griffithianum growing Hardy Henry Himalayan Horticultural hybridising hybrids Ibid India J. C. Williams James Mangles John John Bartram Joseph Hooker Knap Hill landscape Lanning Roper Lionel de Rothschild Littleworth Loddiges London Lord lovely Lutyens magnolias mauve Millais mountains named native North nursery nurserymen open daily painted Park Pink Pearl plants ponticum primulas purple rhodo rhododen rhododendron garden Rhododendron ponticum Rhododendron Society rhododendron world Rock Garden rose Royal Botanic Garden Royal Horticultural Society Sargent scented seedlings seeds sinogrande species Sunningdale Surrey Trebah valley vireyas Waterer Waterer's wild woodland woods wrote yellow Yunnan