View Product Images R. sphaeroblastum R. sphaeroblastum

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sphaeroblastum

Compact shrubs, 3 to 10 ft.  Beautiful foliage plant with a dense rust-colored indumentum below.  Attractive flowers (April-May) white to white flushed pink with crimson or purple markings.  Native to rocky slopes, conifer forests and rhododendron thickets from 10,000 to 14,500 ft. in SW Sichuan and NW Yunnan, China

1964/145  COR  (0).  Flowers white with only a few flecks.

1967/688  Glendoick  (0).

1983/011  LAR:GAM  (0).

sphaeroblastum var. wumengense

A newly introduced variety of the popular and beautiful R. sphaeroblastum. This recently described taxon forms a compact rounded evergreen shrub with extremely attractive foliage. This variety differs from the typical in that the leaves are elliptic to oblong-obovate in shape with a dense woolly indumentum of pale yellow-brown hairs on the underside. The petioles (leaf stems) are also longer in this variety and it occurs as a disjunct population 140 miles from the nearest known population of the species. The flowers (mid-spring) are white to white flushed pink, often with reddish spots. Slow-growing but beautiful, requiring protection from the hot afternoon sun and excellent drainage. Found only on the Wumeng Shan of NE Yunnan, China where it occurs on open alpine slopes and in Abies forest from 12,000 to 14,000 ft.

1983/011  Larson (-10\R2\3). The typical form (var. sphaeroblastum) with white flowers. 

1996sd535  SEH#209:RSBG  (-10\R2\3).  Slow-growing mound-shaped shrubs with outstanding foliage.  The leaves are dark green and shiny on the upper surface with a brownish indumentum beneath.  Bright blue-green new growth. White to cream flowers with red spots in mid-spring.  These are grown from my collection of seed at 12,800 ft. in NE Yunnan, China.

1996sd547  SEH#223:RSBG  (-10\R2\3).  Grown from my collection of seed at 12,300 ft. from a beautiful specimen with more rounded leaves than the other plants in the area.  These exquisite young plants are already developing their beautiful foliage (blue-green upon emerging).

1997sd264  AC#2056:RSBG  (-10\R2\3).  Slow growing evergreen shrubs with blue-green new foliage.  The leaves have a pale brown indumentum on their lower surface.  Grown from seed collected wild in Yunnan, China.  White flowers with reddish spots in mid-spring.  Very attractive foliage.