Episode: 10
Title: Magnolias and Rhododendrons at Cloudehill
Broadcast: 25th October
Presenter: Mel

Rhododendrons are an incredibly diverse group of plants with over 1000 different wild species – and that doesn’t include the countless number of hybrids.

• Rhododendrons are the forest dwellers with lush evergreen foliage and big flowers.
  
  
• They’re not a plant for the average garden, thankfully Rhododendrons range in habit from big trees to ground covering alpine forms and everything between.
  
  
• There are a few plants that signal the arrival of spring like the deciduous Magnolias.
  
  
• It’s the varieties of Magnolia soulangeana – The Chinese Magnolia – that are the real showoffs with large tulip-like flowers on bare branches – they come in all shades of white, pink, crimson or deep claret colour.
  
  
• Another rare trees specimen worth hunting down is the Magnolia kobus, you’ll sometimes hear it called the Kobushi Magnolia, native to Japan.