As you read this
title I can hear you say, "What, another group of Deciduous Azaleas? How many
more are we going to get?" Let me explain what the Windsor group is and how it
came about and then you can be the judge.
In May of 1970 my wife and I paid a
visit to England with the intention of looking at as many Deciduous Azaleas as
we could. We went to the Exbury Gardens and saw some beautiful material there.
We went to Hilliers Nursery and selected some more and towards the end of our
trip, without any particular purpose in mind, we went to visit the Savill Garden
in Windsor Great Park. We were there about the first of June and the Azaleas for
which the gardens are famous were at the peak of perfection-and what perfection!
Mass upon serried mass of many of the old hybrids interspersed with bold groups
of a spectacular new range of large flowered hybrids in every imaginable color.
What made these plants different to the recognized standard varieties? As we
walked around the gardens it seemed to me that the flower form was generally
speaking, superior. Now I say "generally speaking" because there is no question
that in the Exbury and the Knap Hill as well as the Ilam groups there are plants
of exceptional merit. These plants are at the top of the whole range. But
looking over the large number of plants flowering in the Savill Garden there
seemed to be many plants of this exceptional caliber. Plant after plant
exhibited the fine round, bold, fully filled truss, and this combined with the
clarity of the colors produced plants of unusual excellence. The yellows were a
pure clear yellow, the whites shined with a brilliant whiteness, the reds were
startling in their clarity and in addition many of the plants had a most
attractive two-tone affect. As each large truss began to open the buds were, in
every instance, a deep pink, but when the flowers opened they might be a clear
yellow or clear white. The combination of developing buds together with the
adjacent opened flowers was most unusual. Naturally enough in walking around the
gardens we looked at the name tags hanging on the plants and all that we could
find was the simple statement - Windsor Hybrids. Later on we met John Bond, who
has since become the Joint Keeper of the Gardens following Sir Eric Savill's
retirement. Mr. Bond gave us some background on these plants.
The Savill Garden was commenced about
1932 and after some years a group of Azaleas was acquired from the Exbury estate
of Lionel de Rothschild. These came as seedlings unnamed and were planted in
various parts of the Savill and Valley gardens. As the development of the
gardens proceeded the need for additional plants was clear and it was decided
that they should commence to raise some of their own from seed. Mr. Findlay, now
the other Joint Keeper, who was then in charge of the gardens under the
direction of Sir Eric Savill, began to cross some of the best of the Exbury
seedlings which had now developed into fair sized plants. Following the lead
given by Lionel de Rothschild, Mr. Findlay selected exceptional plants and
crossed two which had unusual qualities of color, size of bloom, or any other
quality he considered desirable. The seed was sown, the seedlings brought to
flowering stage and then only the outstanding and unusual plants which clearly
showed in the mass of the seed beds were selected. The young seedlings were held
for three or four years to insure that all would flower but from perhaps a batch
of 10,000 seedlings not more than 50 might be selected and these plants were
moved into the Savill and Valley Gardens. This careful process of bringing
together exceptional parents, raising a batch of seedlings and then selecting
with great care the outstanding plants in each batch has now continued for a
period of 25 years or more. Plants grown and selected in this way for planting
in the Savill Garden and the nearby Valley Gardens can be seen in all stages of
development from newly planted stock not more than 15" high to massive plants 10
to 12 feet high and wide which were some of the original selections. Now it
would be ridiculous to suggest that all of the plants segregated in this manner
have proved to be outstanding. They have not and there are a number of plants
growing in the Gardens which may have excellent flower quality but which are not
very good growers. There are others which grow beautifully but which do not
produce exceptional flowers. But finally, of course, there is a group, which,
over the years, has clearly indicated many outstanding qualities. These are
indeed exceptional plants in both vigor and quality of growth, size and purity
of flower combined with first class flower form. It is these plants which we
believe to be worthy of introduction to horticulturalists everywhere. With this
in mind, therefore, we discussed the matter with Mr. Bond and at first he and
Sir Eric were doubtful of the wisdom of introducing yet another group of
Deciduous Azaleas. Eventually, however, we were able to persuade them that if
selections were made with great care and these in turn were carefully retested
under varying climatic conditions we felt sure there was a hard core nucleus of
really outstanding plants which would be a joy to grow and a pleasure for any
horticulturalist wherever he might be.
In the Spring of 1971, therefore, my
wife and I returned to the Windsor Great Park and with the help of Mr. Bond we
selected a group of about 30 outstanding plants from the many thousands of
seedlings available. As it turned out many of these came from some of the later
crosses for we eventually decided that these were among the best available.
Cuttings were brought back as part of our personal luggage and with careful
preplanning and excellent cooperation from the U. S. D. A. officials at Kennedy
airport these cuttings were passed through the quarantine in 20 minutes and
early the next morning were inserted in our propagation benches. As might be
expected we found a wide variation of root-ability in this group but only one of
the 30 plants selected has not rooted at all. This variety will almost certainly
have to be discarded but we do have rooted cuttings of all the remainder and
these will be carefully grown through the winter, given artificial light to
ensure top growth and we expect to have additional cuttings from them so that by
next spring we should have a good working nucleus for future growing on and
testing. This testing is going to be as vigorous and as careful as we can make
it and we will be quite satisfied if we can select say five really outstanding
plants from the 30 we brought over. There is no question, therefore, that these
plants will not be available for some time because it is part of our
understanding with the management at Windsor that they are not prematurely
offered to the horticulture fraternity in this country. Everyone wants to be
quite certain that when the Windsor Hybrids are finally available they are
indeed as good as we believe they are. This then is the background of these
beautiful plants.
It seems to me that once again we are
fortunate to be able to enjoy the results of quite an exceptional degree of
horticultural skill and judgment. The process which has produced the Windsor
Hybrids is essentially the same process which was used 100 years or more ago in
England to produce the iron clad Rhododendrons which have yet to be superseded
as the mainstay of the Rhododendron world here in the eastern United States. At
that time tens of thousands of seedlings were produced by knowledgeable plants
men and slowly and most carefully judged to produce the few varieties we still
grow and enjoy. This system seems to be unique to English horticulture and I
suppose that only an establishment like the Savill Garden could carry out such a
process in the middle of the 20th century. It is greatly to their credit and to
the credit of Sir Eric Savill and Mr. Findlay that this process was carried on
for we believe that the result has been outstanding and exceptional. Time will
show whether their judgment and ours is correct but in the meantime we will
welcome a visit from anyone who is interested in any of these plants and would
care to come to the nursery in flowering time to see them.
