Spring scent

Back to the old wet and windy days again! I’m glad that we had reasonable weather last week even though we didn’t see that much sunshine. A wet week would have been very disappointing.
 
Went shopping this morning and didn’t see much opportunity for a Blip in Tesco’s! While we were away some of my rhododendrons have come into flower. On the bank outside the kitchen window is ‘Martha Wright’, a hybrid in the Maddenia subsection, a cross between Rh. burmanicum and Rh. ‘Fragrantissimum’. A beautiful, fairly compact shrub, hardy only in milder places, but flowering well here with creamy-white fragrant flowers.
 
Rh. ‘Fragrantissimum’, one of its parents, is a long established though tender hybrid of Rh. edgeworthii and Rh. formosum which has been around for more than 100 years. It’s usually grown in conservatories, but suffers from a very leggy habit which can’t be improved by pruning. My Blip today is of Rh. ‘Fragrantissimum Improved’, a more recent hybrid of the same parentage, but which is more compact and less leggy! Again, it’s not totally hardy, but thrives here and the fragrant flowers are white with a beautiful pink flush. I got my plant from a friend a few years ago - he grew it from cuttings received from California. I’m hoping it will grow into a beautiful, medium sized shrub.
 
Quote of the day: ‘The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all directions.’ - Chanakya.