Pilchuck Pollinator

Some claim that for Trifloras, the colder the winter, the more red in the blue.  After several years of casual, unscientific observation, I decided that the ‘blueness’ had more to do with then Prime Minister Mulroney’s standing in the opinion polls than winter temperature.

 

The first of the Triflora to bloom in spring - in February - is the yellow-flowered lutescens.   Under-plant  lutescens with the dark purple form of Helleborus orientalis and the green flowered Helleborus foetidus and some of the early flowering daffodils and perhaps a few primulas  and call for Van Gogh.  Then, next to lutescens, plant its cousin, the pink March blooming davidsonianum.  The clone ‘Ruth Lyons’ has no markings in her throat. - regarded by some connoisseurs as a mark of purity - but I like the ones with the jewels on their throats just as well.  Continuing this theme of tall, willowy exclamation marks, plant the April flowering augustinii and the white flowering rigidum side by side.  There is a very good form of the latter that I got from Greer’s.  This has a tennis ball sized truss of 6 or 8 snowy flowers, (thus stretching the name Triflora, even for a taxonomist) and dark chocolate anthers.

 

This resplendence of rhododendrons is not complete without the inclusion of the latest of the Triflora to bloom – tricanthum.  I think the best forms of tricanthum are the deep purple ones.  This extends the floral show to mid June.  With five plants, one can have a five-month succession of colour.  Since expense is not a consideration in this imagery, let’s add around the perimeter of the grouping a clump of each of the smallest of the Triflora – hanceanum  and keiskei.  Hanceanum makes a great border plant, seldom getting more than 30 cm in height but twice as wide.  Its April creamy flowers are openly out-facing and numerous.  These match the bronzy new foliage so well that few gardeners can complain of any tonal disharmony.  The tiny form of keiskei ‘Yaku Fairy’ is the best known and is certainly a gem but there are other larger forms which might be more suited to our Triflora  extravaganza.  As an aside, I was told that the way to grow keiskei ‘Yaku Fairy’ is in a pot. Every year knock the plant out and put another 2cm of soil in the pot.  “Yaku Fairy’ will spill over the rim of the pot cascading down to form a splendid wig.

 

For those with space and who like to develop a theme to its most replete, one of the easiest to please of all the Triflora is yunnanense.  Reportedly it has a very wide geographical distribution and a large altitudinal range.  It varies in flower from white through pink to pale purple.  I think the form with white flowers and coral markings is probably the best.  I find that yunnanense is one of these shrubs that is taken for granted like some conifers or spireas.  It is an essential element in the landscape but assumes a kind of complementary demeanour.

 

The collector can add the whimsically named ambiguum – an easy doer with soft yellow flowers in April/May.  There is also an interesting multicolored form of the type species triflorum.  The cream flowers are suffused with red and pink and green.  At this point I have to add that probably the least garden worthy of all rhododendrons in my garden is a triflorum.  Its flowers are the same insipid color as the leaves; it is an aesthetic disaster.  The reason I keep this plant is not for any horticultural or botanical interest, but for human interest.  If any visitor notices the flowers she is immediately elected to my Growers’Hall of Fame. However, this plant is the exception – most are fully worthy of the space they occupy.