Rhododendrons are under the spotlight next month. Gillian Vine reports.
Dunedin is the third-best place in the world to grow rhododendrons, says Tony Fitchett.
That's not Dr Fitchett's opinion but the assessment of Kenneth Cox, a writer and rhododendron specialist from Glendoick, in Scotland.
That rhododendron reputation is important in attracting people to Dunedin and more than 200 people, including groups from Japan, Canada, the United States, Australia and Germany, will gather in the city from October 20 to 24.
They will be celebrating the 70th jubilee of the New Zealand Rhododendron Association (NZRA) at a conference whose principal speakers are Germany's Hartwig Schepker, scientific director of Bremen's Botanic Garden and Rhododendron Park, home of one of the world's largest rhododendron collections; and American Steve Hootman, executive director and curator of the Rhododendron Species Foundation and Botanical Garden in Federal Way, Washington.
New Zealand speakers include Lynn Bublitz, who has been involved with the Pukeiti Rhododendron Trust's garden, near New Plymouth, since he was a schoolboy; Denis Hughes of Blue Mountain Nurseries, Tapanui; and Dunedin writer-photographer, ecologist and conservationist Neville Peat.
Most conference sessions would be open to the public and the ''lecture only'' option was aimed at locals, Dr Fitchett said. Tours before, during and after the conference will enable attendees to see numerous fine gardens.
''People we've approached [to show their gardens] have been extremely helpful,'' Dr Fitchett said.
It is appropriate Dunedin is the venue for such a significant event for it was here, more than 130 years ago, that New Zealand's first registered rhododendron, Marquis of Lothian, was bred by William Martin.
A Scotsman, who trained at the prestigious Edinburgh Botanical Gardens, Mr Martin migrated to Otago, arriving at Port Chalmers on Philip Laing in April 1848.
In 1850, he established his Fairfield nursery, the scale of which can be appreciated by his 1880 catalogue, which listed 1400 different plants for sale.
Rhododendrons were a specialty of Mr Martin and about 1880 Marquis of Lothian - the result of crossing Rhododendron thomsonii with R. griffithianum - was bred. Some nurseries still offer this variety, attractive not only for its mid-pink flowers but also its smooth beige bark.
There are several well-grown specimens in the Upper Garden at the Dunedin Botanic Garden (DBG).
Thanks to the mild winter, many rhododendrons are flowering earlier than usual but it is hoped October-blooming Marquis of Lothian will still strut its stuff to delegates.
William Martin's success was followed by others and to date, 18 rhododendrons bred in Dunedin have been registered.
Some are on show on Balch's Island, an area in the DBG Rhododendron Dell named after Robert Balch, a former deputy director at the garden and a keen rhododendron hybridist.
Also grown in this area are several rhododendrons bred by Bruce Campbell, a former Evening Star gardening writer and postwar editor of The Star Garden Book. Mr Campbell's hybrids include Waireka (1990), Rothesay (1973) and September Snow (1978), the latter a sweetly perfumed variety bred by crossing R. leucaspis and R. edgeworthii.
By 1998, there were so many New Zealand hybrids that a handbook, Crossing the Rubicon, published by the Canterbury Rhododendron Society, gave a detailed list. It is hoped that a new edition of the book will be ready in time to be launched at the conference.
Dunedin's association with rhododendrons has meant strong local membership of the NZRA and the Dunedin Rhododendron Group (DRG), and although the conference is being organised by the NZRA, Dr Fitchett says there has been a lot of assistance from DRG members.
''It's coming together well,'' he said.
Planning for the Dunedin conference began in May 2010, not in New Zealand but in Germany.
At a symposium in Bremen, it was felt it was time New Zealand hosted an international conference and the year of the NZRA's 70th anniversary seemed appropriate.
Dr Fitchett was asked to arrange it and he formed a six-person core group to undertake the work.
The date was carefully chosen.
''We spent considerable time in 2011 recording what was flowering here [on my Pine Hill property] and in the botanic garden,'' Dr Fitchett said.
This data was laid out on a spreadsheet and analysed before the dates were set.
However, this year's mild winter has seen some rhododendrons blooming earlier than usual, ''their timetable disturbed'', causing some concern about what conference delegates will see next month but Dr Fitchett is sanguine, saying: ''Not knowing adds to the interest - and there's more to rhododendrons than flowers.''
