Rhododendron rubiginosum Ted Millais

Code: SRUBTM
Flower Colour: Pinky-mauve
Flowering Month: April-May
Height After 10 Years: 150-175cm
Interesting Foliage: No
Scent: Not Scented
Hardiness: To -15 °C

This selection, collected by our own Ted Millais, has attractive deep pink flowers in April to May. This is an easy vigorous strong-growing shrub that can grow very large. It has interesting small bronze green foliage and is good for windbreaks and will tolerate neutral soil. Height 140-160cm in 10 years.

Ted collected this on one of his early trips to the Himalyas during the 1980's. He gave a seedling to the RHS Gardens at Wisley, and it was planted out at the top of windswept Battleston Hill where every spring the flowers glow luminously. Colin Crosbie, the Woody Plant Supervisor much admired it, and we were delighted when he offered to name it in honour of Ted Millais who died in 2003.

A tough plant useful for neutral soil.
Easy to grow.
Ideal position: most garden situations.
Habit: upright.
Group: Small Leaved Rhododendron.
Subsection: Heliolepida.
Introduction date: pre 1900 (1889).
Species distribution: W & NW Yunnan, NE Upper Burma, SW Sichuan, SE Tibet.
Approximate altitude: 2,500-4,250m
Ideal soil: pH 4.5 to 6.5.
RHS Hardiness Rating: H4.
How we usually propagate this plant: Cutting.