Here's my yearly roundup of Ericaceous developments. ([previously...[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/a-few-spring-pics-of-uncommon-varieties-dsvw-vd~3901716))

First, R. molle japonicum keeps getting bigger and showier. Love this plant. The color almost overdrives that smartphone's CMOS chip and causes the color to appear off. IRL it is a blazing, solid orange with just the slightest shading of pink.

Here is Arneson's Gem, only got one flower on it this year. It's spectacular when well grown though...not sure where but I know I saw one that prompted me to buy it. Either the Rarefind display gardens or somewhere else in the PA/NY area. Flowers are big for an Exbury type.
It seemed to struggle when planted - I've actually found deciduous azaleas harder to establish in my conditions that elepidotes. You can see the showy display of the japonicum in the background.

Now, just some seedpods. Am making some crosses for a couple collectors in New England. This is sinofalconeri pollen on 'Sky King'. They have even gotten bigger since this picture! The pods on BVT X mac are the biggest I've ever seen in my garden, including the incredibly fecund fortunea hybrids like 'Mary Garrison'. (makes so many huge ugly pods it is almost disfiguring LOL) So, I am confident the crosses took and there will be a lot of seed! The twist ties are marking the pollen origin. Also made a few additional interesting crosses...I tried putting sinofalconeri on 'Autumn Gold' because it should help the offspring get a deep color.

One pod didn't seem to take. (left front)...
What I'm finding about the timing is it doesn't really make sense to wait until the stigma is receptive and sticky. Better to just get some pollen on there just before the flower opens, emasculate it, and protect it with a mini plastic bag with a few holes for vents. So the instant it is receptive, there's already pollen there. That's how I got the huge
pods this year.

Here is 'Joseph Dunn'. Not the showiest plant, but it seems very resistant to my hot, wet summers, especially for a lepidote. Many more lepidotes, as a percentage, have died for me than elepidotes. Granted, I have tried foolish things like 'Trewithen Orange', bound to die here in summer eventually (and probably winter, without occasional protection). But even lepidotes like 'Furman's Pink Prologue' that should grow well, seem vaguely unhappy here. So Joseph Dunn and R. minus 'Ft. Gaines', a heat resistant one from the southeast, are best so far. I had Van Veen root them for grafting experiments. 'Ft. Gaines' cuttings grow faster so have only experimented with it so far. r I can confirm 'Yellow Hammer', a fine variety which would surely get root rot here (both its parents have died of it!!!) successfully grafted. I cut off the parent connection early this spring - very nerve wracking - and it is sprouting as well as branches on the rootstock! Very exciting...it's too bad these are so painstaking to make...even compared to other grafts like maples, conifers, and various BLEs. The stems are just so darn fragile and the cambium so thin.

I love the look of the Fargesia 'Green Screen' bamboo foliage on the ground. The dramatic shade is being cast by the huge leaves of Magnolia 'Phelan Bright'.

This is so-called 'True Blue'. Not going to get rid of it, but it's a bit of a let down. It might start a little closer to blue, but fades back to typical rhodie-mauve. I placed a flower of 'English Roseum' atop the truss...I have some of those around for rootstock use, too - and you can see it is hardly different. 'Polarnacht' is a better color. GRANTED, it seems like as with yellows, odd elepidote colors like this might look better in maritime climates. I swear 'True Blue' looked better to me when I saw it in Northern California. So for me at least the various 'blue' lepidotes like 'Crater Lake' are better at producing a blue effect.

Finally, first flower of 'Max Roseum' X 'Skipper' (yellow form). It's not very deep at all, but probably almost as good as 'Capistrano' was around here. The saturation is similar but the hue is more eye catching to me. Somewhat similar to but better than what I remember 'Phyllis Korn' looking like. AND the flowers have a curious pearlescent sheen to them, like piano ivory or something. Hard to capture in the picture, you had to be there LOL. The pink filaments are showy.