Clyde Higgerson has a whole front yard filled with hundreds or maybe over a thousand rhododendrons under evaluation, including the one in the picture here, being tested for hardiness, scrappyness, and beauty. Most of his plants never get babied, and I'm not sure if any of them do. He purposely plants them out in full sun and wind exposure year-round, and gets very tough plants as a result. He gave me one such seedling, and now I'm babying it. What can I say?!

Clyde told me about the fruits on the plant you see above, and said that they were as big as pickles. Well, I saw them, and he wasn't exaggerating. They had to be 3/4 inch long and 1/2 inch wide. So I call this one "pickles" with double quotes and a lower case letter p, so as not to make anyone think that it is a named clone. Who knows, it just might turn out to be a first class plant. It has only flowered for one year yet, Spring 2000, but already shows that it's at least worthy of breeding.

Parentage: 'Casanova' x fortunei

Hybridizer: Clyde Higgerson, ca. 1997?

Introduced: under evaluation

Registered: no