The Resources And Landscaping Applications In Rhododendrons

The genus Rhododendron, the family Ericaeae, is the famous ornamental flower in the world, and is one of the ten Chinese traditional flowers as well.In spite of over one thousand years' cultivation history in China, the Rhododendron was still less understood to the people. Especially upon appreciation and application of the Rhododendron, we normally felt the lack of systematic theory and instructive method, and even some mistakes on it. In this paper, the resources and its appreciations and applications in Rhododendron were reviewed based on the former studies and author's investigations and working experiences, which was expected to helpful and useful for the future study and applications in Rhododendron.The origin and modern geographical distribution was analyzed in Rhododendron. It was over 967 species in the genus Rhododendron in the world, in which Subgenus Rhododendron, occupied 51.5 percent, was considered as the largest in the genus. The Asia area was the most concentrated distribution place, where the species was over 900 with 96.4 percent. The main reason of the formation of modern geographical distribution was considered as natural spread, while the artificial, human assisted spread was the beginning of the application of Rhododendrons.The Rhododendron resources from Asia, North America, Europe and Oceania were reviewed with emphases on the nearly 40 species from China, Japan and Korea, whose heritages had a great influence upon the world Rhododendron horticultural cultivars.The key characteristic of appreciation in landscaping with Rhododendron was composed of the flower, leaf, plant type and fragrance. The rich cultural implication and cultural deposit were explored by the examples of the historical legends, poetry and flower language.The landscaping pattern of Rhododendron appreciations and applications was analyzed as four essentials: potted flower, potted landscape, flower exhibition, and land cultivation. The potted Rhododendron flower was mainly decorated indoors and outdoors. The potted Rhododendron landscape which made into a variety of types was a unique of Chinese application method. Flower exhibition was a pattern of showing and appreciating the plentiful species in Rhododendron. Construction of special garden and application in landscape was the main uses in land cultivation, which could produce fascinating scenery of Rhododendron hill and flower sea.The statue of Rhododendron cultivation, production, appreciation and application was investigated. In China, the main landscaping applications in Rhododendron were Rhododendron-ecological tour, exhibition with potted Rhododendron and potted landscape, and special garden and landscape architecture. Meanwhile, the own opinion and proposal were given upon the Rhododendron application problems of germplasm resources, landscape application and special garden in present China.Upon the landscaping application situation and developmental trend, the prospects of appreciations and applications in the future Rhododendron landscaping development were described regarding to resources utilization, landscape and horticulture, cultural construction.