Rhodies

Today I signed up for a garden tour at Mount Stewart. We started with the gardener in charge of the Italian garden, who was accompanied by an Irish wolfhound. She was killing time until the head gardener was available.

He told us about this rhododendron, which was found by a plant hunter on top of a mountain in a remote province of India. It’s called something like McAbee, for the Scottish plant hunter.

Here’s the tree it came from--one of my favourites. It looks like a tree covered in wedding bouquets. British aristocrats paid for plant hunters to travel to Tasmania, Sri Lanka, Nepal, you name it, in search of unique plants for their walled gardens. Mount Stewart enjoys a subtropical climate, sitting as it does between a tree-covered ridge and Strangford Lough, which draws from the relatively warm gulf stream.

Did you know there are 900 species of rhododendrons? If you count crosses, you get to 30,000! I left the tour after an hour and a half to get lunch, get warmed up, and check out the dog show going on on the lawn. This big newfie had a bib on that said “Bear Hugs.” I was basically stalking people who have springers. I really want a springer and have so far had no luck after looking on four or five rescue sites.

Here’s a view of Strangford Lough from Mount Stewart. It doesn’t capture the azure and teal glow of the water.

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