ARS Victoria Newsletter – June 2025

• Date: 11th June 2025
• author: Prue Crome

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.

The Japanese Teahouse area has been a focus of the Rhododendron Gardens for many years, with the Prunus Walk being particularly beautiful in autumn, yet many visitors come to see the blossom, but our native parrots enjoy the buds! Meetings with ARSV members and Parks Victoria staff ensued and resulted
in developing this project, as the plants origins were an appropriate choice and the potential for a wonderful display would be a draw card and add to the spring flowering of the ornamental cherries. The vision for the design was to create mounds for mass plantings, which include small intimate areas of grass
for visitors to enjoy...

To read the remainder of this article and find out all the good things that are happening with the Victorian Rhododendron Society please download their newsletter, which is now being issued seasonally, 4 per year.