Rhododendron maximum – Great Laurel – 3-Gallon

This inhabitant of wet woods, streamside slopes and bogs in the Catskills is valued for its late blooms – usually around the Fourth of July – a bit earlier now in an age of global warming – and ability to flower in fairly dense shade. The flowers are white edged in pink. Often dug from the wild, which we refuse to offer, nursery propagated plants can be hard to come by and many years we can’t find any plants to sell. More readily available is a supposed variety ‘Independence,’ but its pink flowers and significantly earlier bloom suggest it’s a hybrid. You’ll also see another supposed variety ‘Roseum,’ but this is a nomenclatural error. The plant is properly named ‘Maximum Roseum’ – it’s certainly not a cultivar of the native species; at best it may be a hybrid with some R. maximum parentage, but even this isn’t clearly known. One of the best choices for providing a screen in shady conditions.