Description
Rhododendron canadensis (QUANTITY LIMITED)
CT DR P
Soil: Moist, Acidic
Moisture: Moist to Wet
Light: Full to Part Sun
Plant Height: to 3 feet
Pests: None
Landscape Value: Great for damp areas along ponds and streams, in moist meadows and fields, and along moist woodland edges.
Not your ordinary rhododendron! A multi-stemmed, deciduous shrub with gray-green leaves that turn yellow in the fall. Showy clusters of rose-purple flowers bloom in April-May before leaves emerge. Unlike other rhododendrons, flowers are tubeless with a three-lobed upper petal and two separate lower petals. Fruits are dry brown capsules that split open in late fall. Tolerates shade and poorly-drained soil. Good nectar source for early pollinators. Attracts butterflies, flies, and bees, especially bumblebees.
Long considered a botanical icon of New England, Rhodora was paid homage to in a reflective poem by Transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson entitled “The Rhodora: On Being Asked Whence Is The Flower” (1834, publ. 1847).
2 gallon pot
