“Until you understand a writer’s ignorance, presume yourself understanding of his ignorance.”  Wise words.  The ones that follow come from a not well-experienced grower of the group of rhododendrons known as Maddeniis.  Nevertheless, I will now go charging off in all directions.

There does not appear to be much known about Lt. Col. E. Madden, apart from dying in 1856.  He was what Davidian calls “a traveler in India.”  However, he has left his name to, perhaps, the most taxonomically confusing tribe of rhododendrons in the whole genus.  For example, when botanists made the first stab at classification (Hutchison at Kew in the 1920s), there were 30 species in one of the Maddenii groups.  That was reduced to 12 in 1980 and it looks like it may be decided in the next little while that there are only two or three species.  These wild plants vary considerably but in a seemingly even and continuous flux.

The Maddeniis are mostly open, rangy, straggly shrubs that grow quite often epiphytically on other rhododendrons or associated trees.  As a group they prefer semi-tropical areas.  The only one I ever saw growing wild was right on the north-eastern border of Thailand and Myanmar at 1800 meters where the lowest temperature ever recorded was 5°C.   They are not very cold hardy but there are a few that we can grow almost with impunity in the Victoria area.  Let’s list these first and then mention some of the more flamboyant, tenderer ones.

Burmanicum, ciliatum, fletcherianum, johnstoneanum,and valentinianum.  All of these, I grow outside without any real difficulty, although I have lost plants in exposed situations and in long cold windy periods (1989).  Good drainage is vital.

In appearance ciliatum looks a lot like Moupinense - with hairier leaves.  They are closely related but moupinense is in its own subsection.  I would not be surprised that when DNA profiling is done, ciliatum will prove to be closer to moupinense than to some of the larger plants in the Maddenia.  In any event it is a choice, small, softly pink early bloomer that needs a nice sheltered spot.  Fletcherianum is a low grower with thick bristly leaves and significant yellow flowers and appears in the lineage of many hybrids.  Johnstoneanum can get quite large.  There is a double form called ‘Double Diamond’, that is in the connoisseur’s class, with flowers like gardenias but it is considerably less hardy than the white to cream trumpeted one we see more commonly in local gardens.   Valentinianum has interesting peeling bark and pleasing yellow flowers.  It blooms in January/February so it must not be in a frost pocket.  It also has lots of progeny.

Now, we come to the show-offs – a characterization that some envious onlookers often ascribe to their growers.  These have large trumpets of lily-like flowers, often only two or three in the truss.  The ones with whitish flowers are usually powerfully fragrant.  The ones with yellowish flowers are usually scentless.