Mike Robinson, our speaker the evening of April 17th, lives in East Sussex, England, and is chairman of both the RHS Rhododendron and Camellia Committee, and their Rhododendron Camellia and Magnolia Group. A member of the prestigious RHS Woody Plants Committee, he is also a life member of Magnolia Society International.
He is the co-author of a forthcoming pocket book on the identification of rhododendron species. In his 4-acre garden at 600 feet in East Sussex he has a collection of around 200 magnoliaceae, countless rhododendrons, many camellias and other woody plants. He is particularly interested in dark flowered magnolias, in rhododendron species and in propagating late flowering hybrids from the great UK gardens. He has been hybridising rhododendron for lateness, colour and fragrance for some years.
News of Mike’s coming here to speak to the VRS and the SRS, the Seattle ARS chapter, has met with considerable enthusiasm by everyone who knows him. His title: ‘Ancient and modern, noteworthy and new: cultivars grown in the UK’
