23. The Yellow Hill
Yellow-flowered Rhododendron cultivars, crosses of R. keiskei and of R. ludlowii.
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Yellow is not a common colour for rhododendron flowers, even among the dwarf, evergreen species, and this is reflected in the limited cultivars available. In the past, there had effectively been only one, the very special ‘Yellow Hammer’, which is not hardy here.
Fortunately, two breeders have recently shown a particular interest in creating new cultivars: Peter Cox in Scotland and Warren Berg in the USA. The latter has mainly used the Japanese Rhododendron keiskei as the mother species. This has resulted in several excellent pale-yellow cultivars, the best possibly being ‘Patty Bee’. Through further crossing with pink flowering species he created some exceptional cultivars with both yellow and pink flowers: ‘Ginny Gee’ and ‘Too Bee’.
Cox has used a wider range of mother plants, for example the large-flowered R. ludlowii, a hopelessly difficult species in cultivation. It verges on the miraculous that he managed to create so many excellent garden plants with such poor parents. Among them, ‘Curlew’ is the best.
