Rhododendron indicum Sweet var. rosea superba

Horticultural & Botanical History

For more information on Indica Azaleas see Rhododendron indicum Sweet.

History at Camden Park

Listed only in the 1857 catalogue [T.100/1857].

Notes

Azalea indica var. plena, the ‘Double rose-coloured Indian Azalea’ was figured in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine in 1824, among the first double azaleas to be illustrated in a British journal: ‘Of the numerous varieties of this beautiful shrub recorded by Kaempfer, as occurring in Japan, only one is mentioned as being double, and that only with two Corollas one within another.  In the one here represented, the Stamens were all obliterated, being converted into petals.  The flowers are more numerous than in the variety before given, but rather smaller, the leaves are smaller and more hairy.  It seems to be one of those which, when full grown, are described as appearing entirely covered at the upper part with blossoms.  So much attention has been of late paid to the importation of curious plants from China, that we can hardly fail of receiving more of the varieties of this beautiful shrub from that country, and when once imported they are not difficult to propagate by layers.’  This plant was imported by Brookes from China in 1819.  [BM t.2509/1824].  It is probably similar to, if not identical with rosea superba for which I have found no specific description.