An Iowa Garden

In walking about the garden on the shortest day of the year, a day of fog and shadows, the lepidote rhododendrons continue to be interesting to look at, with a variety of leaves and plant habits. One of the finest in terms of habit is Rhododendron Faisa; it's winter foliage is shown in the top picture, its spring flowering in the lower picture. Many of the lepidote rhododendrons, coming from climates where hugging the ground, often under the snow, is essential for survival, have low, widely branching forms. Here in Iowa we have to grow our rhodys in a bit more shade than they would like, due to our hot summer sun, so some of the lepidotes in my garden get a bit... shall we say scraggly? Faisa is a fine exception, maintaining a stiff upright form, with crisp foliage and it is rock hardy here, in both leaf and bud. From its parentage, I'm rather surprised it does so well here. It is a hybrid of R. minus Carolinianum (specifically a selected, compact pink clone of minus named Achiever) and R. polycladum Scintillans group. R. minus is a native of the eastern U.S., with the group Carolinianum being the northern strain of minus; lower in stature and more winter hardy, but then not known for loving hot summers. R. polycladum is a short and very small leaved species from the alpine meadows of Yunan, and is of the subsection lapponica; lapponicas are small rhododendrons from high elevations or high latitudes, with small leaves and small lavender flowers, notorious for their abhorence of hot summers. One would think a hybrid of these two species would melt here in August; I do see some leaf wilting on hot, dry afternoons, but Faisa bounces back nicely (I would also think Faisa would turn up its toes in our winters, because polycladum is rated hardy only to zone 8). However, it thrives here and will grow about four feet high and three feet wide, and its flowers are a hard to describe smoky lavender. Rhododendron fanciers always talk about "good doers"; Faisa is certainly that for me.