The Rhododendrons of Chimacum Woods: Grower Feature
Perhaps no other shrub is as ubiquitous to the northwest landscape as rhododendrons. They have been planted for decades in our yards, with some of them growing into small trees. And while the vast majority are hybridized varieties, gardeners have come to appreciate species rhododendrons, many of which have come from the mountains throughout Asia, and whose forbearers’ genetic material was used to create the hybrids.
Sky Nursery for several years has been proud to feature species rhododendrons grown by Chimacum Woods Nursery, in Port Ludlow. Last summer, former Sky employee Emily Apple and I decided to take up Chimacum’s invitation to tour their facility.
Set in the woods, just on the other side of Hood Canal, it’s not hard to imagine why the setting attracted Bob Zimmerman back in 1976. He and his spouse, Beth Orling, now focus exclusively on these species rhododendrons that come straight from Mother Nature.
A retired minister and family therapist, Bob remembers his father planting rhododendrons in the family garden in New Jersey that he bought directly from truck-drivers bringing them up from the mountains of North Carolina.
Bob started experimenting fifty years ago with growing rhododendrons from seed on his kitchen stove as a home gardener in California.
Most rhododendrons that we see in retail nurseries are propagated from cuttings of the parent plant or from tissue culture. This makes sense if your goal is to produce exact duplicates, something buyers of hybrids are expecting for consistent flowers. However, growing rhododendrons from seed, as they do at Chimacum, is a more difficult and time-consuming process.
In autumn, seeds are planted in small containers of sphagnum moss. Over the winter, they grow in greenhouse conditions that mimic the cloud-shrouded mountain forests of their native habitat. Chimacum sells their plants to retail nurseries and individual customers when they are around five or six years of age, ready to be planted out in the ground, or grown as container plants on the patio.
Customer education is a huge focus at Chimacum Nursery. Each plant comes with a color photograph tag, providing information about where the seed came from and the ideal conditions for growing the rhododendrons in our own gardens based on their native habitat.
Beth and Bob strongly believe that growing directly from seed helps preserve the genetic diversity of species rhododendrons. Loss of habitat due to logging, road building and farmland expansion in India, Nepal, China and Tibet means more endemic species are at risk of extinction.
Bob is a seasoned plant explorer and has travelled to many remote locations to see the plants in their native habitats. The enjoyment Bob derives from these adventures is obvious when listening to his tales of mountain hikes through the rain dealing with leeches and then being part of the local scene while staying in rustic guest houses. There was a definite twinkle in Bob’s eye when we touched on the subject of his next destination.
The results of these trips shape the arboretum Beth and Bob have created at Chimacum Woods. They try and grow as many plants of a species as possible to capture the variations in the species when grown from seed.
Some of the plants have matured into impressive specimens including a subspecies of R. arboreum, a rhododendron that can reach the size of a tree, as Bob was happy to demonstrate by climbing one during our tour of his nursery.
Set amongst a forest of northwest native trees, including Douglas Firs and a towering redwood that Bob planted soon after moving to the property, the arboretum at Chimacum Woods allows their rhododendrons to grow in partial shade as understory plants, much as they do in their native habitat. For the visitor it is awe inspiring but not in a way that feels unattainable. There are many amazing plants ready for us to take home and start our own arboretum. The plants of Chimacum Woods nursery are lush, sturdy, not difficult to grow in a home garden, and delightfully interesting.
written by Sky Employee Geoff Berg
For more on Rhododendrons sold at Sky Nursery click here.