JAPANESE AZALEA SPECIES GARDEN
For want of a better title, this is how we refer to the new gardens planted in the Japanese Teahouse area of
the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden.
This project started in 2019 when drawn to a spectacular rhododendron flowering at the rear of gardens,
namely R. dilitatum var. satsumense. It was a glowing halo of pink amongst an overgrown area filled with
other deciduous and evergreen plants. On investigation of the ARSV database, this area had plants from
1977 with additions over the next decade. Of the 34 species listed, it had just solitary specimens of 9
species. Given the rhododendron gardens are now a botanic garden, we felt it necessary to safeguard these
species as we can no longer import wild collected seeds.
Bob Withers imported the initial seeds from Japan and Korea, and the over the next decade seed from
Taiwan and China. The garden comprised the ‘Azaleas’ of the Sections Tsutsui, Brachycalyx and Sciadoran ie
deciduous R. mariesii, R. reticulatum, R. weyrichii, R. albrechtii, R. sanctum, and evergreens R. tashiroi, R.
rubropilosum and R. kanehirae to name a few. From 2020, an ongoing effort was made to identify the
plants as the labels were no longer there and take cuttings, with the aim of creating a display collection in a
more prominent location.
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