Rhododendron and
Azalea News

Ideas for Chapters

A millennium challenge at the 2004 convention...

For each of you rhododendron lovers, District 8 leaders offer a challenge...a millennium challenge.  They're seeking the best of our 21^st century new trusses.  Does your garden have any?

Enter the "Millennium Challenge" category at the ARS convention truss show in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, May 13, 2004.  This prize will be awarded to the best cultivar registered since January 1, 2000.  It is open to all exhibitors.

For developing their own crosses...the organizers will also award the Hybridizers Cup for the best truss or spray entered by its creator. 

This truss show is based on the format used by most District 8 chapters, with sections divided by flower type and color.

Prizes awarded for best:

• evergreen azalea hybrid
• deciduous azalea hybrid
• rhododendron hybrid
• species
• foliage
• seed exchange entry

Sweepstakes!  In addition to the Hybridizers Cup and Millennium Challenge and topping them all off - Best in Show.

The 2004 Convention Truss Show takes place, Thursday, May 13, and the staging area will receive entries from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., allowing exhibitors to present entries before the day's garden tours begin.

THE CHALLENGE is at hand...who will triumph?

How to select and care for truss show entries.

Given the Millennium Challenge by District 8 for the ARS Convention in May, it seems appropriate to provide a guide for preparing trusses for shows.  The guide was written in 1983 by Evie Cowles for the Massachusetts Chapter's newsletter.  Recently, they reprinted it for their new members.  It is presented here for everyone.

Perfect condition is essential.  This means: healthy, unblemished foliage to set off the florets.  If you think of the leaves as a frame for a picture, you will appreciate how insect bites or browning reduces aesthetic appeal.  The large-leaved variety, ideally, is presented as a truss sitting on a perfect circle of leaves.

Blossoms should be open and not over-mature.  A truss with a still-closed bud is preferable to another with florets on the point of dropping.  This particularly applies to the selection of azaleas.

As with most cut flowers, rhododendrons benefit from a hardening-off period.  Cutting them the day before the show and setting them in water up to their necks in a cold, draft-free spot helps prevent wilting during the show.

Before they are placed on display, it's a good idea to make a fresh cut of the stem base.  If a heavy rain is predicted before the show, cut your perfect trusses and extend this for a few days.

Very early varieties.  These trusses can be shown out of season if they have been kept in cold storage.  The truss is stored dry in a sealed plastic bag in a refrigerator until the day before the show.  It's helpful to inflate the bag by blowing air into it...as if it were a balloon.  This will prevent the plastic from damaging the issues of the truss.

Stems are trimmed.  Stems are trimmed before plunging them in lukewarm water for at least 24 hours.

Care in transporting.  All the care in the world up to this point is useless if the trusses are bashed en route to the show.

• For a short drive: it's fine to lay them in shallow boxes.
• For a longer distance: it's better to put them upright in water in pop bottles or cans that are braced to prevent tipping or crowding.

Be venturesome!  Let's have lots of exhibitors!  We'll all enjoy the show more that way...and discover the beauty of some new plants we will want to add to our own collections in the near future.

And, might it be added...for the total enjoyment of all who come to the 2004 Convention.  We will look forward to a beautiful display.

Evie added this comment to those who bring trusses: Should the foliage be in poor condition, bring the truss and place it on the "conversation table" for others to see and admire.

Phlamingoes?

Where did they winter?

For the past year or so, we have been reporting on the story of the Pink Flamingos.  This is the latest update by Doug and Peggy Crane of the Cascade Chapter, Washington.

The story goes that once upon a time there were Phlamingoes of Whidbey Island.  They were happy there but for some reason known only to them...they decided to migrate...to the mainland.  Now these are not the usual family of phlamingoes.  This family only visits where rhododendrons grow.

Don and Carolyn Smart were hosts for a time.  Then, mysteriously, they appeared in Doug and Peggy Crane's yard.  They stationed themselves gracefully at the end of the walk and greeted all passersby in their best pink attire.

Then one day in mid-December, Pett, Phyllis, Phred, and Phlo flew to what may be their winter quarters at the Phlugs.  We believe they will enjoy their visit there.

We're not too sure where they spent the holidays.  Do you know?

Websites...and more.

Sometimes, too, it's recommended to have a connecting link to another website of interest to rhododendron lovers and gardeners.  This added feature will enhance your own.  Think about it.  Expansion...expansion...expansion will equal more exposure to the wonderful world of rhododendrons and azaleas.

What is an enigmatologist?

IF you are an enigmatologist, than you are one of those very special people who creates puzzles for someone else to solve.

The Eugene Chapter, Oregon, has such a person in David Williams.  For years he had a special puzzle each month in the chapter's newsletter.  The members loved the puzzles.  There was a lapse in them after the tragic death of his wife.  Now, they're back again.

Mental health experts agree on one point...you must keep your mind active...at all times as you progress toward real older status.  And, they agree: crossword puzzles are an excellent mental exercise.  If doing crossword puzzles is good exercise, just consider what great exercise for the mind it is to construct a crossword puzzle.

The members of the Eugene Chapter got quite a present just before Christmas when a brand new puzzle arrived, unheralded, in the mail with the promise of three more to come.  What a start for the New Year! It's a thriller.

The puzzle is designed all around rhododendrons and will test your ability.  Should you wish a copy, send a note or e-mail to the editor, Marty Anderson.

You yourself or your chapter may have been presented with the following question.  It's really worth thinking about...and, perhaps, taking a different approach to some of your chapter's meeting.  Presented in this section is a conversational approach.  Think you will find it interesting...and the solution at the end.

Leslie Drew of the Victoria Chapter, Canada, thinks there's answer to the ever-asked question: "How," the new member asked, "Can I get some really special rhododendrons, the ones you don't see in everybody's garden?"

The question was one I had to ponder, being ponderous.  Put on the spot, I mumbled something about maybe go to Norman Todd's rhodo nursery near Elk Lake, which has an extraordinary number of species, as well as the popular hybrids.  My response was, perhaps, disloyal to other grower/members closer to the home here in the Cowichan Valley who, for all I know, may offer all kinds or rhodo gems, but it was the first thing that came to mind.

The evening before, Ingeborg Woodsworth and I had tagged along with the Victoria Rhododendron Society's propagating group on a tour of Norman's garden and been blown away the number of rare rhododendron growing there...species of intriguing colors and shapes that one would dearly love to see in flower.  We saw Norman's newest rhodo garden, off to the Southwest, steeply sloping and loaded with treasures...and opportunity.

How fortunate we are, I thought, to be able to see most of the entire garden at a leisurely pace.  Later on, the group met in the host's home.  The meeting was delightfully unstructured.  Ken Webb's "let's discussion begin" on its own accord, and the leading topic...what else?...was this summer's intense heat and its affect on plants and, for those on wells, the aquifers.  No one it seemed, would be taking cuttings until November, by which time usually reliable autumn rains would give the donor plants a change to recover.

The Victoria propagators are a small group of 10 to 12, of various ages, who gather once a month to see garden renovations, a new shade house, what's on the propagating benches.  They supply young plants for the Victoria Chapter meetings and the annual plant sale.  In the next couple of years will be growing several hundred Vancouver Island hybrids as gifts for the ARS annual convention in Victoria in 2005.

It was from three members, Judy Gordon, Bill McMillan, and Don Whittle that our chapter received about 100 liners this Spring for our members to raise for meeting sales.  Thanks to them, we have some really good "out-of-the ordinary" materials, mostly species, to grow on.

I'm coming back to the new member's question...but first: the Victoria propagating get-together was on a Monday night...and two nights later...our directors meet at Fred Collin's home to plan for the start of the new season.  In a neat little greenhouse off his patio were the tiny rhodos he chose, no longer tiny but healthy, spunky plants already, after barely three months.  Fred is, of course, an ardent propagator and creator of hybrids, and has been swapping rhodo material for years.  He knows what we all learn: exchanging ideas and rhodo materials with others is how we gain an intimate knowledge of this great genus Rhododendron.

The species, still being discovered, are particularly rewarding and, to disagree slightly, it was Dave Dougan who recently pointed out to me that when he was building his first rhodo garden some 50 years ago...or more...the very few nurseries that carried rhodos offered the buyer far more species than can be found today in the plethora of garden centers.

So how can a new member get some of those really special rhododendrons?

• step forward, this old fogy suggests,
• take on the executive,
• get to know the rest of the gang, and
• meet their rhododendrons.

Newsletters give a personal touch...

It's been interesting to note in the various chapter newsletters that a special note of "thanks" is given to members who:

• are being relocated because of job transfer,
• have done a remarkable job of carrying out a project for the chapter,
• have quietly and silently made contributions to success of programs,
• have recruited speakers and displays,
• have a talent for making new members feel welcome,
• assist with local projects at garden sites, doing simple things,
• like weeding, spreading mulch, wood chips, etc.,
• the list could go on and on and on.

Let's take the time to insert a special words of commendation for things seen.  It will certainly make each member feel good and they will want to do more later.  Thankfulness is the strength of all solid relationships.  And, it's like a stone tossed into a pond, it produces numerous ripples.

Sharing those favorite recipes...

Notice is made in the newsletters about recipes for cookies and cakes brought to the various brunches and teas.  Great idea!  Each one looks good to this home economist!  When one finds a great recipe and shares it...that's the frosting on the cake!

A thought: would the world like to know about recipes enjoyed by the various chapters?  Drop a note to the editor and we'll see what we can do.  Rhododendron lovers are noted for the first-class, top-priority characteristic of...sharing.

A Phlamingo update from Whidbey Island

Don Smart, Cascade Chapter, Washington, sheds a little more light on the birds of the air since the December report shown earlier in this section.  Jack and Norma Lounsberry have property on the north end of the island that they call "The Park."  Every summer they host a chapter picnic and barbeque.  They wrote the following in the Whidbey Island January newsletter.

The Park is now "In the Pink": bird feeding usually entrails dispersing seed, cracked corn, and bakery leftovers to the local and transient small birds, ducks, geese, and a few chipmunks.  You can imagine my surprise to find that a flock of pink flamingos had joined this diverse group of "munchers".

Ruling out the possibility that these Florida natives had arrived on their own using faulty GPS guidance, my suspicions lead me to believe that they were escorted there by some extraterrestrial cult ("Alien Rhody Society Members"?).  I will say that they really brighten up the place with their distinctive plumage and, unlike those un-potty trained ducks and geese, leave the area neat and clean.

Now for the problem: I was told by the Miami zookeeper that, unless Flamingos eat shrimp, their feathers turn white. OK, you ARS folks, where do I find some plastic Florida shrimp to sustain this flock?

Reader, do you have an answer? Send it to the editor, Marty Anderson. We'll post all replies to this question in the next R&A News.

A helpful directive...

One that would have the fruit
must climb the tree.

--Thomas Fuller