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joycenh

Rhododendron Capistrano

joycenh
17 years ago

Anybody have experience with this yellow rhodie? I am really tempted to get it but have never even seen it except in pictures.

Comments (23)

  • mainegrower
    17 years ago

    Capistrano is not nearly as strong a yellow as most catalog pictures show. I would call it a cream color - nice, but not yellow. I've found that it requires quite a bit of shade (true of most cream/yellows) and is quite slow growing. If your winter temperatures don't fall below -12 and/or you're willing to provide some extra protection, Goldkrone is the deepest yellow I've found growable here.

  • ego45
    17 years ago

    It's definitely not a dark or bright yellow, but I wouldn't call it a cream either. Buds are true yellow and flowers opens decent yellow slowly fading to butter(y) yellow:
    {{gwi:389880}}

    Color will stand out better if somewhere nearby at the same time will be blooming bright red azalea or rhodie.
    Contrary, anything white will wash it out.
    It's indeed could take and probably even need quite a bid of shade. Mine is in dappled shade with no direct sun whatsoever and flower buds production is good.
    I also wouldn't call it particularly slow growing.
    Mine is about 30" tall after two years in a ground being planted as a 12" baby.
    However, I see already that it wants to be leggy and next year I'll start judicial pruning to prevent this.

  • rhodyman
    17 years ago

    Hardy yellow rhododendrons are fairly unusual, especially in garden centers. Capistrano was introduced by David Leach and was introduced into the nursery trade with many other plants he introduced. When purchased in garden centers, it is a knockout, but in the garden it is plagued by many problems. I have never seen a good looking flower in a garden. They always look like:

    {{gwi:396137}}

  • blue_velvet_elvis
    17 years ago

    I've been looking for one anywhere in my area. All garden centers here have never even heard of these. Is there a better and more easily purchased substitute that would have truer yellow blossoms?

  • ego45
    17 years ago

    Capistrano promouted as a yellowish of yellow types that are hardy for z6. You'll have a problem to find YELLOW for z5.

  • rhodyman
    17 years ago

    The hardiest yellows are:

    ÂCasanova (-25F)

    ÂHindustan (-20F)

    ÂHong Kong (-20F)

    They are all different. I haven't grown any of them.

  • mainegrower
    17 years ago

    The three Leach hybrids in rhodyman's list are described as yellow, but none of them really are. Casanova is cream with a yellowish blotch, Hindustan pale pink with the same sort of blotch and Hong Kong a cream color.
    I haven't seen it, but Rarefind Nursery lists a brand new hybrid called Absolute Citron which is described as having a bright medium yellow flower and -15 or lower hardiness. Goldkrone, the excellent Hachmann yellow for Z5b and warmer, is involved in the parentage as are Janet Blair and Ice Cube - two hardy "good doers".

  • ego45
    17 years ago

    I've bought Hong Kong in buds 3 years ago and never seen any blooms ever since.
    It was indeed very pale yellow/cream and nothing special to write home about. That is why I bought Capistrano which is much more (at least in opening stage) yellow than HK.

  • thewidowwarren
    7 years ago

    I love Capistrano's pale yellow color. My experience is that a pale yellow blends with any other color in yoru palette. I don't feel the need for a vivid yellow rhodie.

  • rochesterroseman
    7 years ago

    Capistrano is a soft , but true yellow, not cream. I just purchased 2 from a local garden center. It was in full bloom and blew me away! Just stunning. It's new for me, so I don't know what it's like to grow, but certainly worth a try. I agree that it's rare to find yellows for sale. The store only had 2 in stock and I bought both. I have not seen yellows in any other local garden shop.

  • rhodyman
    7 years ago

    Rhododendrons flowers change color during the duration of their bloom. Many open one color and fade to an almost totally different color. For example Scintillation opens pink with a yellow blotch and fades to tan with a cream blotch. Capistrano has the strongest color when it first opens also, so I am sure everyone's description is what they saw.

  • davidrt28 (zone 7)
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    Rochesterroseman, even in Rochester, make sure it has a well drained spot. If Hank was inspired to rename it "Crapistrano" on the incredibly well drained sandy soils of Rarefind because it was "cranky" (his words), I don't think it will be a complete walk in the park even up in airy upstate NY. Mine remains to the day the fastest and most complete case of collapse from root rot I've ever seen. Granted back in 2006 when I'd planted it I didn't know any better, and probably didn't position it in an optimal way. But it was frustrating for a 4' tall plant that had never seemed to struggle before to drop dead in 2 weeks flat.

    Glad you are happy with it, in any case.

    "Many open one color and fade to an almost totally different color."

    And even stranger is how they change year over year. I have a picture of 'Sun Dust' from one year, where, indeed, it looks like Sun Dust! Sort of a matte, dullish medium yellow. But pretty strong yellow for an east coast plant. This year it was nice but quite different, but more of an orange-ish pink. (I think I posted a picture somewhere) OTOH 'Viscy', which is normally more orange-pink for me, was closer to yellow than it has ever been!

  • ctgardenguy (Zone 6)
    7 years ago

    I bought a Capistrano from Wayside Gardens a couple of years ago. It did nothing, but it was planted in sun so I moved it to a shady spot. It still hasn't grown much, but this year it bloomed for the first time. The flowers are more cream colored than yellow.

  • Mike McGarvey
    7 years ago

    I have a rather unremarkable yellow blooming rhodo called Yellow Hammer. It has small leaves and is about 7 or 8 ft. tall.

    Another one I have is called Butterfly. It's a lot larger.

    Mike

  • davidrt28 (zone 7)
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    I was googling this cultivar because I had mentioned in a recent post of mine. I was shocked to find this:

    https://www.greatplantpicks.org/plantlists/view/1295

    "While good yellow cultivars are less common than those of other colors, the GPP Rhododendron Advisory Committee recommends five cultivars for the coastal Pacific Northwest."

    Da fuh?

    There are SO many better yellow cultivars for zone 8 PNW!!! What are they thinking? It would be one thing if it were actually a tough plant like the slightly better [yellow] albeit more obscure 'My Jane', but it isn't! But there's, let's see, just off the top of my head, 'Nancy Evans', 'Yellow Petticoats', 'Paprika Spiced', 'Horizon Monarch', and a whole bunch of Whitney and Barlup hybrids on the tip of my tongue like 'Windsong' - oh and 'Karalee' just came to me! Thank you brain memory banks! I saw a couple fairly big 'Karalee' that Hank Schannen, before he died, imported to Rarefind for breeding purposes. (well, imported from across the country anyhow) He knew they would not be long lasting saleable plants. Amazing yellow.

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    2 years ago

    david, in all honesty, any yellow rhody will fare very well in the PNW climate..........Capistrano does as well here and looks as good as any other. I have used it (and Hotei and Chikor and Nancy Evans and Patty Bee) many times in my design work.

    btw, one of the GPP Rhododendron Advisory Committee members is the former propagation manager of the RSF so the input on what is a "great plant pick" for the PNW is coming from some pretty reputable sources/. And are intended as recommendations only for PNW gardeners.

  • Steve Henning
    2 years ago

    When you say any yellow rhody will fare very well in the PNW climate you probably are not including in the high Cascades or the arid prairies east of the Cascades. In fact you are probably just including the valley and coast regions in the western PNW which are actually a very small part of the PNW, but it is where most people live. At the recent ARS virtual convention in Nova Scotia they mentioned that Capistrano does extremely well there. In fact most rhododendron seem to do well in the Annapolis Valley region of Nova Scotia. Further south in the mid-Atlantic region, it is like the late Hank Shannon said, Crapistrano. In the mid-Atlantic we have more hot weather. Since most yellows are prone to root rot, they are more difficult to grow in hot moist climates like the mid-Atlantic.

  • davidrt28 (zone 7)
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    Haha, GG. I thought I might poke one of the tigers (and I mean that in a totally respectful way in this case)

    Although since you've opened that pandora's box...there are a few things I could say about the RSF...they are a fine non-profit and I am indebted to them for various plants that have graced my garden, at least temporarily (LOL)...but as a whole documentary has pointed out, not everything that every non-profit does is ethically "above board" or in-line with the wishes of their founders. In particular, I have at least a couple direct, first-person accounts of them telling people on phone, in locations such as Arkansas and Georgia that Rhododendron rex would "do well for them". Nothing is further from the truth - and just as we would criticize an ebay seller telling a little old lady that a Samsung charger would work for her iphone or vice versa - this sort of thing absolutely needs to be called out. A R. rex has a snowball's chance in hell of surviving ungrafted anywhere in Arkansas and practically anywhere in GA. There's a plentiful corpus of recorded information at this point - I'm sure their on-site library has the books 'hybrids and hybridizers' and 'rhododendrons of the world' - addressing what species will survive outwith the PNW and which won't. Rhododendrons of the world mentions that a R. rex survived a few years in SE PA, and then died. Furthermore they know grafted plants would do better in other parts of the country - actual convos I've had with staff there - but continue to sell plants they know will fail without grafting. In fact, in a past when labor was cheaper, they used to sell grafted species! They've always known better! So, it is what it is. I'd be fine if they sold a bunch of plants for fundraising that they basically know would die on the east and told people as much, but that doesn't appear to be what's going on. Off soapbox now!

    Back to "yellow" rhodies: "looks as good as any other". Hhhmmmm, well if they were simply classifying them on "looking good", I agree Capistrano can be an ok-to-better than average looking plant. It had a nice sensible rounded form without any pruning, as I recall. And it does bloom. But to say it's a top yellow is ridiculous! All of those yellows I listed as well as the Hotei you added to the list, are more saturated and therefore yellow!

    In my somewhat cynical estimation what is going on here is a kind of FOMO, widespread commercial plant cultivar editions. Someone thought "well, Capistranos are grown in great quantities by our wholesalers because they will die in an east coast garden in 3 to 5 years instead of 1 year like a more saturated yellow like Yellow Petticoats, so they often end up in our retail channels as well and since it's such a common yellow we might as well add it to the list".

    To be fair though...it's totally possible that Capistrano looks better in the PNW...I cannot of course say I've seen it in bloom there cuz I've never been to the PNW at that time of year. So thanks for adding your perspective...which you know I appreciated anyhow! (been to Sonoma CA in spring but I definitely didn't see or wouldn't have noticed, that cultivar at Sonoma Hort. Which reminds me, Double Eagle is another superb yellow that grows fine in the PNW. It grew fine here for a while and seemed at least zn 7 hardy, until an absolutely dreadful summer knocked it out. Kathy Van Veen decline to graft it for me because she didn't want any plants or scions from SHN headed her direction because of SOD concerns. Entirely justified and I didn't hold it against her. Besides it might have been a fool's errand...that was the year she was diagnosed with brain cancer and with the nursery thrown into turmoil, the grafts might have been lost in the shuffle anyhow. I thank my luck stars I have grafts of Nancy Evans, Yellow Petticoats, and Medusa from her, since no other nursery in the great US of A can be bothered to make rhodie grafts at the moment. Even though the world's largest wholesaler and commercial hybridizer, Hachmann in Germany, grafts EVERY plant they produce for sale! Vale Kathy. Thank you for being you.)

  • gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
    2 years ago

    Yes, most that live and garden in this area consider the PNW to be the land west of the Cascades. Anything east of the Cascades is more climatically in line with the Rockies and offers very different growing conditions. In fact, there is movement to change the designation to that of Cascadia to reflect the unique climatology of this area.

  • davidrt28 (zone 7)
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    Last add-on to my screed here: I don't feel I'm particularly knocking rhodie growers because producing plants guaranteed to fail [in very large swaths of the country] is now endemic to the industry as a whole. Like the fancy patented coneflowers and heucheras that plenty of people besides me having complained about on these forums. And maybe not even 'large swaths', maybe the whole thing, in the case of container stock of almost anything that is grown with deeply circling and knotted roots. As I've noted, the exception now is NOT encountering the problem. Shout out to White's Nursery here in Maryland. I carefully checked every plant I bought there and did not see the problem. Nor have I seen it in what I've bought from the RSF...so, hopefully that balances out my seeming negativity! I admit they send out a damn beautiful plant...as well grown as it could be...which makes the death of so many of them down the road, all the more unfortunate LOL.

  • davidrt28 (zone 7)
    2 years ago
    last modified: 2 years ago

    Hey Steve, nice to have you back! Yes of course I think most serious gardeners understand "PNW" to be shorthand for the mild, zone 8 and zone 9 (bit of zone 7 in the coldest hallows) parts of coastal WA & OR.

    And indeed I almost added myself, that Capistrano seems ok perhaps from Cape Cod, to points north.

    GG, totally agreed. Although I have a few pinks and mauves, I generally think it's unfortunate that on the east coast at least, 98% of rhodies seen are what I've called in the past 'funeral home landscaping'. The quite boring 'Roseum Elegans' and 'English Roseum'. I'd much rather seen a washed out, wan yellow like 'Capistrano' in a garden, than either of those. Part of my 'mission' in my first cross was to create a rhododendron that could partly fill the niche of crape myrtle in zone 7b-8b of the eastern US. Being an arborescent, blood red form with sufficient root rot resistance. And therefore _didn't_ need to be grafted. Thornton already proved that delavayi imparts root rot resistance, and my pollen parent, 'Captain Jack' is one of the toughest (and best) PNW reds, known to have grown for decades in a Philadelphia garden.

  • Steve Henning
    2 years ago

    In 2019 I moved to an area that is alkaline in central PA. I created a rhododendron garden in an arboretum here and used plants that I knew were tough, would tolerate soil problems if properly planted, tolerate full sun, always have abundant flowers, resist phytopthera, and always have great foliage. I used Anthony Waterer's English Roseum and Roseum Elegans, and Koster's Nova Zembla. People here love them. I could have used more exotic hybrids, but their struggles would have cast a negative light on the genus. By the way we have had 90F temperatures in April, a drought in May, and 8" of rain in June so far, so the climate is quite fickled.

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