Revisiting the Concept of Cultivars


Cultivars of Native Florida Flame Azalea (Rhododendron austrinum)

Today as I spend some time in my backyard landscape, the Florida flame azaleas (Rhododendron austrinum) I planted nearly 3 years ago are in bloom. They have grown a bit slower than I would like, but I am an impatient gardener. The truth is that they are doing about as well as they should be at this point in time. Perhaps someday, they will be shrubs that stand 6 feet tall, covered with these gorgeous blossoms, but today, they are merely 2 feet in height and I have to treasure the few flower clusters they produce. I wait each year for these flowers to arrive and they last just a week or two before they disappear again to be held on skinny stems with very little aesthetic appeal. Some might wonder at my zeal in growing them, but they are an integral part of my woodland's spring progression and I wouldn't trade them in for anything else that might be more lush.

These also are cultivars - a word used almost as a curse by some who post on social media platforms as if being a "cultivar" was tantamount to being worthless in a landscape designed for wildlife. It is an uneducated viewpoint. Being a cultivar does not, by itself, make it one thing or another as a landscape addition. It only means that it has an attribute that some plant propagator found superior and desirable to perpetuate. That, in itself, has no bearing on its usefulness in a living landscape. It only has an impact if that desirable trait comes with additional baggage.

The various cultivars of my Florida flame azaleas were selected for color. They were all collected from wild plants and then propagated from cuttings to keep them "pure."  Each plant is a clone of the original wild plant so that the superior color form would remain intact. This is the way clones are generated. They start as a wild plant selected for a unique or special trait and they are then kept from crossing back to the rest of the population. If we start with a specimen that is unique in color, for example, but inferior as a pollinator plant, the clone will remain inferior, but if that plant is just as good or better as a pollinator it will remain that way also. Being a clone is not the issue. The issue originates with the original plant(s) that are cloned. 

In the world of ornamental horticulture, a great many clones are produced without regard for anything other than aesthetics. It is true that many are inferior to wild populations of the species for pollinator purposes, but even then, it's not the fact that they are clones that matters - it's the fact that they are clones of inferior specimens. In the native plant world, I have not seen the same type of issues. Selecting superior plants from wild populations and then maintaining them by asexual propagation techniques has not produced a slew of inferior natives in my experience. My Florida flame azaleas are a case in point. They are simply native plants chosen for their slightly unique color forms and then propagated so as not to lose that. 

As we move forward to create living landscapes around our homes and businesses, we should not eschew the use of cultivars of native plants simply because they are cultivars. Especially if they actually have superior traits that make their use more valuable in the landscape. We move forward in this effort with critical thinking - not by using our gut feelings based without data.  

Comments

  1. ChrisUMay 2, 2021 at 1:31 PM

    I enjoy the plant In winter when the fat buds are arrayed in space like a three dimensional model of a globular galaxy. As you walk, their apparent positions relative to your movement, communicate a complex spatial relationship.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SEEMay 2, 2021 at 1:55 PM

    I want to thank you for encouraging gardeners to plant beyond a plant’s “vouchered” areas. They haven’t all been successful in my Hillsbouough County yard, but I have especially enjoyed the beauty of the R. austrinium and R. canescens.

    ReplyDelete

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