Rhododendron Dell plants
Background
Fun Facts
About
Rhododendron Dell is a contemplative landscape showcasing the Arboretum’s core collection of hybrid and evergreen rhododendrons. An overstory of hemlock, birch, oak, maple, and pine provide ideal rhododendron habitat. In the early 1900s, Ernest Henry Wilson evaluated many of the rhododendrons in the collection and in 1917 published a list of “ironclads”—a group of hybrid rhododendrons that had proved hardy and floriferous at the Arnold Arboretum. Bred in the United Kingdom, these ironclads became the focus of regional plant introduction and breeding endeavors in New England. Many of the original ironclads, acquired in 1886 from the Woking Nursery in England, are the largest plants in the collection.
Today, rhododendron collections in Rhododendron Dell include 92 taxa (kinds). Of these, 72 are cultivars which have been selected for horticultural merits including flower color and fragrance, truss (domed flower mass) size, leaf morphology, and hardiness.
Resources:
- Find directions and accessibility information for this collection
- Explore a gallery on the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden website.
- Read about the rediscovery of Rhododendron Dell in Arnoldia (Part 1 [pdf], Part 2 [pdf])
- Read about the care and pruning of Rhododendrons in Arnoldia [pdf]
Plants in this Collection
| Plant ID | Accession Date | Received As | Origin | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Featured Walk
Explorers Garden Tour
This quarter-mile tour through the Explorers Garden features stories from the Arboretum’s century and a half of collecting plants around the world. If you’re at the Arboretum, click here to take a version of this tour with Expeditions, our mobile web app.
