korean rhododendron | Beautiful Flower Pictures Blog

Korean Rhododendron – rhododendron mucronulatum

by hankinslawrenceimages | May 5, 2011 | Ericaceae Family, Flowers

Each year in late March I’m always surprised to see some rhododendron’s blooming in local botanical gardens. In the DC area, when you think of rhododendrons and azaleas blooming – it’s usually in May and June. So the ones blooming in March really stand out. The early blooming rhododendrons are the Korean Rhododendron (rhododendron mucronulatum).

Korean Rhododendrons are native to Northern China, Korea and Japan. Here in the United States they are hardy from zones 8b to 4a. They prefer growing in sun to partial shade in moist well-drained soil.

Korean Rhododendron bloom in early to mid spring. They add a wonderful splash of color into the garden at that time of year. In the DC area, they bloom at about the same time as the Yulan Magnolia and Star Magnolias. The flowers emerge on the shrubs before the leaves emerge. Like other decidious shrubs, the Korean Rhododendrons lose their leaves each fall. In the fall, the leaves turn to shades of yellow and red.

Korean Rhododendron are a slow growing shrub that usually grow to about 4 to 8 feet tall. When full grown, they are 4 to 6 feet wide. The pink/purple flowers bloom in clusters of three or six and are about 1.5 inches in diameter.

I have photographed Korean Rhododendron in several botanical gardens in the DC area including McCrillis Gardens in Bethesda, Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria and the National Arboretum in DC.

Some websites with additional information about Korean Rhododendron include

Dave’s Garden

NC State University Department of Horticulture

UConn Plant Database

University of Illinois Extension

Korean Rhododendron – Rhodendron mucronulatum

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jun 9, 2010 | Ericaceae Family, Flowers

One of the biggest surprises of my spring photography was finding a rhododendron in full bloom in March in the Washington, DC area. Usually, the azaleas bloom in April/May – followed by many of the rhododendrons. So you can imagine my surprise to see what was clearly a rhododendron blooming at two different gardens in March.

It turns out – what I was seeing was Korean Rhododendron (Rhododendron mucronulatum). Native to China, Korea and Japan, Korean Rhododendron is an early blooming shrub that is hardy to Zone 4. The showy pink/purple flowers blossom in clusters of three to six flowers. A deciduous shrub, the leaves of the Korean Rhododendron turn yellow/red/orange in the fall before shedding. These shrubs prefer full sun to light shade, usually growing from four to eight feet tall.

The first Korean Rhododendron I photographed this spring was at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia. I really like the way it added a great splash of color to the browns of the woods in early spring.

I really like the way the light was backlighting some of the petals.

A couple of weeks later, I had the opportunity to photograph another Korean Rhododendron at McCrillis Gardens in Bethesda, Maryland.

Now that I know that Korean Rhododendron bloom in March in the DC area – I’ll definitely keep an eye out for it next year. It’s a wonderful splash of pink that arrives a few weeks before the cherry blossoms bloom.

Spring at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia

by hankinslawrenceimages | Mar 27, 2010 | Flowers

Late last week I spent several wonderful hours photographing at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia. Green Spring Gardens is a wonderful public garden in Fairfax County. Located at 4603 Green Spring Road, the gardens are open year round with free admission. In addition to formal gardens, there is a wooded stream valley and a native plant gardens. The native plant gardens are one of my favorite parts of Green Spring Gardens to spend time in. Not only are there a great variety of native plants in the garden, but many have identification signs, which makes it much easier to figure out what I’ve photographed.

This was my first visit to Green Spring Gardens this year – and it was just a couple of days after I visited Brookside Gardens. There were significant differences between what was in bloom between the two gardens – a few warm days and a slightly difference climate make all the difference in the world.

The first set of flowers I photographed were a variety of reticulated irises called Natasha. They are a pale flower with blue stripes and a striking yellow patch.

I also found some wonderful daffodils to photograph.

And some pansies. I was happy to find some pansies in good shape to photograph – it’s been a tough winter and many of the pansies that wintered over aren’t looking very good.

The big surprise was discovering a rhodedendron already in bloom. The Korean Rhododendron (Rhododendron mucronulatum) is a early flowering rhododendron that adds a great splash of pink to a garden in the spring.

And finally – I found some crocuses to photograph! When I first arrived at Green Spring Gardens that morning, the crocuses weren’t open yet. After a couple of hours – they were absolutely wonderful. This patch of purple and white crocuses were my favorites.

It’s so nice to be photographing flowers outdoors again – while I love seeing them in conservatories in the winter – I’m really much happier photographing outdoors.