Rhododendron 'Hardijzer Beauty'
Common name:
Hardijzer Beauty Azaleodendron
Hardijzer's Beauty Azaleodendron
Pronunciation:
rho-do-DEN-dron
Family:
Ericaceae
Type:
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon:
No
- Broadleaf evergreen shrub, a dwarf azaleodendron, 3 ft (0.9 m) in 10 years, vigorous, upright dense habit. Leaves elliptic, 2-4 cm long, broadly acute tip, wedge-shaped (cuneate) base, glossy, green tinged red, retained 2-3 years, may turn purplish-green in winter. Flowers small, about 2.5 cm across, funnel-shaped, strong purplish-pink and lightly flushed deep purplish-pink, purplish-red spotting in throat; multiple buds per dense cluster, each bud has 2-4 flowers.
- –5°F, early-mid; quality rating: 4/3-4/4 [flower / plant & foliage / performance; scale 1 (poor) - 5 (best)]. Sun tolerant.
- Developed by W. H. Hardijzer, The Nurseries, Boskoop, Holland, introduced in 1965. This plant resulted from a cross between R. racemosum and a Kurume azalea.
- Azaleodendrons are hybrids between plants in different Rhododendron subgenera; they are intersubgenus hybrids. Since few crosses between different rhododendron subgenera are successful, and there are relatively few azaleodendrons. One example of the difficulty in creating azaleodendrons is the failure of Lionel de Rothschild (1882-1942) in this area. For two years he crossed any hybrid rhododendron he had in flower with four different types of azaleas, making the crosses both ways. Some 50 to 60 crosses were made in each year. From this he obtained one pod of seed and raised 3 seedlings, these had not flowered when he wrote his report in 1934 (Bean, 1976). Bean (1976) states that there "is no further record of these, so presumably they were worthless." At first the term azaleodendron referred to the results of successful crosses between deciduous azaleas (subgenus Pentanthera) and elepidote rhododendrons (subgenus Hymenanthes). However, Hardijzer registered hybrids between 1958-1965 that resulted from crosses between evergreen azaleas (Kurume) and a lepidote, R. racemosum. These hybrids have been lumped with the other azaleodendrons more or less because no other taxon was made for them (see Henning's website).
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plant habit, flowering
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leaves and flowers
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