There are many cultivars of kalmia latifolia. Richard Jaynes has spent a good potion of his life hybridizing and selcting for various characteristics. His nursery, Broken Arrow Nursery in CT, sells most of them.

Characteristics like shiny leaves are genetically inherited just like flower color, size, etc. Exposure to sun or lack thereof may have some influence, but will not a change a shiny leaf form to matte or pink flowers to white, for example.

The best source of information about Mt. Laurel cultivars is undoubtably Richard Kayne's The Kalmia Book.

Thanks for the quick reply. The wild ones I've seen had more of a matte look. I will probably get one from Lowes because I will regret it if I don't, they are $25.00 or in that ballpark, and it will be the end of the season and I'll see a photo of one, and want one, and be ordering one and paying more for a smaller plant from across the country! If it's not like the wild ones, it will still be nice. I can try to dig one up in the fall from up the mountains, and I have the seedling baby too. I am worried I may lose it over the winter though. Can I leave the pot outside in a coldframe that isn't heated? Does it need some chilling in dormancy to help growth?
I know get the book! I will look for it, thanks poaky

It's always tricky to overwinter plants in pots because the small thermal mass of a pot can freeze much more readily than the ground. A cold frame can work if well insulated and protected, but a cellar or garage where temperatures stay above freezing is much safer and provides sufficient chilling.

The author of The Kalmia Book is Richard Jaynes, not Kaynes as I wrote previously.

There are a number of native mountain laurel, not just Kalmia latifolia.

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K. latifolia is the most common and largest. It usually has bright pink buds that open to a white flower. The cultivars that you find in garden centers are usually selected for their different colored flowers. Usually the leaves are the same. It can grow fairly tall, especially when grown in the shade. K. latifolia is native to all the east coast from Maine to Florida and west but stops at the plains states. They are usually an understory plant in forests.

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K. augustifolia is usually called Sheep Laurel. It grows from Virginia and Michigan north all through eastern Canada. It is shorter, with a slightly smaller leaf and smaller pink flowers. They are bushier and grow more upright.

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K. microphylla is usually called Alpine Laurel. It is the western mountain laurel and grows from California and Colorado north to Alaska the western provinces of Canada. It is somewhat low growing and has pink flowers.

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K. polifolia is usually called Bog Laurel. It grows from Montana to New England and up to northern parts of Canada. It has pink flowers on a low growing plant.

The above varieties are found in the trade.

Then there are 3 very isolated species of Kalmia native to the Southeastern US.

Now that I think about it the tag says Kalmia and is referred to as Mountain laurel but the latifolia part I,m not sure about. It's night time or I would check the tag. Those in our local mountains are Rhodie type leaves, large dark green and leathery, more matte than this plant. They are larger than most Rhodies, some are up to 15 feet or close to 15 feet and loosely branched, likely from the shade they're growing in. The leaves are bigger than rhodies I've seen though. I think I have 2 bog laurel if they are also called Andromeda, unless I'm thinking of the wronge plant. It kinda looks like Rosemary. I know mine did have pink flowers in spring. I've heard about Texas mountain laurel ( Kalmia Microphylla? ) being easy to grow from seed, but don't know hardiness details etc. I will eventually get the Kalmia book, if I can quit spending all my money on plants!

I grow several varieties of Kalmia. Below is 'Ostbo Red'.

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Here's one called 'Minuet', a bit smaller and slower growing than the species.

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A close up of 'Minuet. Some years the flowers completely hide the foliage.

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Mike

I did some reading and Texas mountain laurel is not Kalmia at all so ignore my Texas mountain laurel question, also the bog laurel isn't what I thought it was either. Sorry for my ignorance! The big misunderstanding will explain why the leaves are so different from the plant I am thinking of. The local name for "mountain laurel" is not the correct name,but everybody uses it to describe what is actually Rhodedendron Maxima or Species rhodedendron, and not Mt Laurel at all. And the seed I have a plant of in a pot is this plant and not Kalmia at all, because that is the plant the seed heads were under. I've read it is also slow growing too. I am sorry for the big mess up! I did alot of web searching and saw a picture of the wild Rhodie and saw it was what I was looking for. I never have seen the Kalmia in the wild around here, only the big rhodies in the wild. I feel soooo stuuuuupid! But that is what everybody around here calls Mountain laurel so I never thought it could be wronge. I will start a new thread about the wild rhodie. I did get a Nathan Hale Kalmia Latifolia by the way. But may return it because it isn't going to get as big as I hoped and the tag from Lowes was too vague to tell me that, so I had to do a web search to find that out. So our state flower Kalmia Latifolia has never before been seen in the wild by me. Our state tree the Hemlock doesn't thrive in my yard for some reason, AAAArgggg! I'm not very erica plant knowledgeable. Thanks for your help anyway.

Poaky1, it's real easy to get mixed up when using common names. Don't feel stoopid. Different regions call the same plant different names. It gets confusing real fast, especially on the Internet where all sorts of areas have an input. It's real easy to make a mistrake.
Latin names look difficult at first, but once you use them regularly, it's not that bad. Start with the easy, common plants you see and think their Latin names when you see them.
I look at the Latin name as if were a people name. Pretty soon it became a lot easier. I saw my 'friends' everywhere!
A common name is a nickname. A Latin name is their real name.
Mike...sort of a plant geek, .....according to my daughter.

The mixup is perfectly natural since Rhododendron maximum is also called great laurel, great rhododendron, rhododendron ashleyi, rosebay rhododendron, American rhododendron, big rhododendron, late rhododendron, summer rhododendron, bigleaf laurel, deertongue laurel, rose tree, rose bay, and bayis as well as mountain laurel.

R. maximum is prevalent in the Appalachian Mountains, especially in the Poconos. They also have a lot of mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia. The mountain laurel blooms in early June while the rhododendron blooms in early July. The mountain laurel tends to grow in drier areas, even mountain tops. The rhododendron loves to line the edges of streams and highways.

About the only place in Pennsylvania that R. maximum doesn't grow wild is the northern tier counties of McKean, Potter, Tioga, and Bradford; the western counties of Mercer, Lawrence, Butler, and Washington; and the southeaster counties of Lebanon and Delaware. The other 57 counties have natural stands of R. maximum.

Kalmia latifolia is even more widespread in Pennsylvania. Native stands are found in all counties except Crawford and Mercer in the west and Montour in central PA.

Rarefind Nursery in Jackson, NJ, has two cultivars of R. maximum:

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R. maximum

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R. maximum "Curly Leaf Maximum"

Rarefind also has lots of Kalmia latifolia cultivars. Some of the most unusual are:

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K. latifolia 'Firecracker'

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K. latifolia 'Galaxy' [yes it really is a Kalmia]

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K. latifolia 'Sarah'

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K. latifolia 'Snowdrift'

Here is a link that might be useful: Rarefind Nursery in NJ

Thanks for the info. I found 2 different varieties in a catalog from Musser forests. It was a spring catalog I had sitting around. Thanks again.

The seeds from the above posts turned out to be from weeds. I have more I sowed on top of moss. The short velvet moss. Hopefully they do good for me. I took some pics of the rhodies that I'm trying to grow and they are where rhodyman said they grow. I like them for the leaves and form more than for the flowers, I've never seen the R Maximum in bloom.{{gwi:396405}}{{gwi:396407}}

Hard to tell from the pictures, but those could easily be Rhododendron maximum, known as indicated above as "great laurel".

Looks like Rhododendron maximum and not mt laurel. I can tell by the leaf size when looking at the bottom left of the photo.