Not Such A Bad Thing, Really

IADORE Rhododendron ponticum.

- Charles Quest - Ritson

I know it’s a thug and that readers of COUNTRY LIFE spend time and money getting rid of it, but no one can deny its beauty in flower. I’ve seen it in June, purpling the Mountains of Mourne as heather will in August. I’ve driven along miles of estate roads at Cragside in Northumberland with nothing but glorious R. ponticum on either side.

I’ve admired its takeover of historic landscapes, such as Wörlitz and Muskau in eastern Germany, and I’ve stood at nearly 8,000ft on the Georgian Military Highway, transfixed by rivers of purple and gold running down the mountainsides—the gold coming from another good doer in British conditions, the sweetscented azalea R. luteum.

In fact, the British form of Ponticum (as everyone calls it) originated not in the Caucasus, but in the mountains of south-west Spain. It was introduced to England in the 18th century and soon made itself at home in the rest of the British Isles. Some botanists maintain that it wasn’t the only immigrant rhododendron to flourish and go native: they say two North American species, R. catawbiense and R. maximum, also introduced in the 18th century, have combined with R. ponticum in an invasive hybrid they call R. x superponticum.