Plants in the Hortus
Many of the plants described here were listed in the catalogues of plants published by Sir William Macarthur in 1843, 1845, 1850 and 1857 and in an unpublished catalogue dated 1861. A large number of additional plants were identified from correspondence, gardening notebooks and other documents surviving in the archives. The Hortus attempts to describe all the plants grown in the gardens at Camden Park and those grown in horticultural enterprises such as orchards and vineyards and includes plants grown outside the gardens in the park-like environs of the Camden Park estate. The Hortus plants served a wide range of purposes in the 19th century household; as ornament, living fences, fibre, dyestuffs, medicines, food and drink from the garden, orchard and vineyard and many others.
Rhododendron ‘Lowii’
An English-bred hybrid with white flowers. [PD]. I have found no more detailed description and no date of introduction is given.
Rhododendron ‘Rawsonii’
A hybrid of Rhododendron indicum Sweet. A dwarf, bushy shrub, to 60cm, with ovate leaves, dark green, paler beneath, and rich rosy red flowers, borne in threes. It is a hybrid raised between Azalea phoenicea and Rhododendron dauricum var. atrovirens by John Menzies, gardener to Christopher Rawson of Halifax in 1832. [MB p.123/1836].
Rhododendron ‘Russelianum’ Sweet
A hybrid of Rhododendron catawbiense Michx. Russelliana is a form with bright rose-coloured flowers. [PD]. This plant is still available.
Rhododendron ‘Tigrinum’
A hybrid of Rhododendron catawbiense Michx. Tigrinum is a hybrid with rose-coloured flowers. [PD]. The other parent is not given and it may be a cultivar, in which case it is properly called Rhododendron catawbiense ‘Tigrinum’.
Rhododendron ‘Victoria’
It is likely that more than one English hybrid or cultivar was called ‘Victoria’ or similar. For example Rhododendron ‘Victoria Reginae’ was exhibited at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society on April 19th, 1889. [Wilson & Rehder p.99]. The authors suggest that this hybrid belongs to a group of hybrids raised by William Smith of Norbiton in 1842 between a hardy Rhododendron seedling and Azalea [Rhododendron] sinensis Sweet, called at the time Rhododendron Smithii or Rhododendron x Smithii, or alternatively that the parentage is ‘a yellow form of the Chinese Azalea and Rhododendron caucasicum, the latter of which it resembles in habit.’ [Robinson, Fl. and Sylva II, 152/1904, quoted in Wilson & Rehder loc cit]. If this association is correct then ‘Victoria Reginae’ could be synonymous with Macarthur’s ‘Victoria’. I have found no specific description of ‘Victoria’. Rhododendron x Smithii aureum is figured in Paxton’s Magazine of Botany [MB p.79/1842].
Rhododendron anthopogon D.Don
Compact dwarf shrub with scaly branchlets, leaves to 3cm long, and terminal clusters of narrowly tubular cream to deep pink flowers in spring. To 60cm. [RHSD, Hortus, Hilliers’].
Rhododendron arborescens Torr.
A late flowering, deciduous, tall and upright azalea with glossy, oval leaves, often tinted in autumn, and fragrant, long-tubed, white flowers, sometimes with a pink or reddish flush and a yellow blotch, in summer. It blooms after the leaves open. To 5m. [RHSD, Hortus, Hilliers’, Lee].
Rhododendron arboreum Sm.
Evergreen tree with lance-shaped, wrinkled leaves, to 19cm long, with dense trusses of tubular-bell-shaped, red, pink or white flowers, to 5cm long, with black spots inside, in spring. To 12m by 4m. [RHSE, Hortus, Hilliers’, Millais].
Rhododendron arboreum Sm. ssp. cinnamomeum (Lindl.) Tagg.
See Rhododendron arboreum Sm. for details. Cinnamomeum has flat leaves, to 11cm long, a whitish under-surface to its leaves and white flowers, sometimes with purple or yellowish spots. [RHSD, Millais]. It appears to be almost identical to Rhododendron arboreum Sm. var. album.
Rhododendron arboreum Sm. ssp. zeylanicum
See Rhododendron arboreum Sm. for details. Zeylanicum has rich pink flowers. [RHSD].
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