| "Rhododendron Woods" was bought by
Dave and his late wife Sandra in the fall of 1976. It is a rolling piece
of property with a floodplain, giving a generally high water table. This
allows plants to grow without artificial watering. All plants growing here
are dependant on only what nature gives. When Dave and Sandra moved in
only an acre and a half around the house was looked after and the rest
of the property had red pine and white spruce about a metre (3 1/2 feet)
in height among grass a metre and a half high (4 feet). This was gradually
reclaimed over the years and now the trees are continuously being thinned.
"Rhododendron Woods" has been open
to the public in peak bloom season for the past 11 years and has been featured
many times for various fund raisers and on other Society garden tours.
In the last 5 years Dave has put in many herbaceous perennial borders which
include collections of Rodgersia, Ligularia, Hosta, Eremurus, Iris and
winter hardy Cacti. Dave is now working on collecting any Magnolia that
will survive in his area. Plants are allowed to self seed and magnolia
and rhododendron seedlings are seen popping up in various areas.
The rhododendron collection consists
mainly of plants grown from Dave's hybridizing and from the seed exchange
as most commercial hybrids available in the general rhododendron market
would just not flower in the Orono area. The plants are grown in the existing
soil with sulphur being the only amendment, to lower the ph from the natural
7.5 to 6.0 and mulching with a layer of newspaper and other material to
hide the newspaper. The blooming season lasts from the first week in May
when R. dauricum starts to flower to mid August when Dave's hybrids of
arborescence, prunifolium and bakeri flower. The vast majority of Dave's
rhododendrons are hybrids of R. brachycarpum spp. tigerstedtii and R. smirnowii
as these have proven to be very hardy and withstand the exposure of summer
dry periods. Dave continues to hybridize rhododendrons but is now running
out of space, so most seed is given to the ARS seed exchange.
Want to check out other Members' Gardens?
Rhododendron
Society of Canada, Niagara Region.
© 1999 - 2001
All rights reserved (http://www.rhodoniagara.org)
Nick Yarmoshuk
- 905 684 4703
|
Dave
Hinton's Rhododendron Woods is a 5 acre country garden, 2 kms from the
village of Orono, about an hour's drive north and east of Toronto in climatic
zone 5 (US Zone 4). The coldest temperature experienced in this garden
in the last 20 years was -36 degrees C (-32 degrees F) on January 16, 1994.
The usual coldest temperature is of the order of -28 degrees C (-20 degrees
F). Dave will talk about his many hybrids developed for this more northern
area, a woodland garden truly "On the Edge."