The Sunnyvale Sun

Cover Story

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Home Garden: Tom Wynn sits in front of his Sunnyvale home, surrounded by rhododendrons with names such as 'My Lady' and 'Alexander Solzhenitsyn.'

Petal Power

Rhododendron enthusiasts kneel in homage

By Stephen Baxter

When Tom Wynn was growing up in San Francisco in the early 1950s, his parents took him to Golden Gate Park to see the rhododendrons. As a boy, he says few things bored him more than flowers, but the visit made an impression.

"It was the worst thing to think of doing as a kid," he says.

Today, Wynn's home near Las Palmas Park in Sunnyvale is ringed with rhododendrons that he planted, and he spends 10 hours a week tending them. In the late '70s, he also helped establish the De Anza Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society.

"You just get programmed; it's part of that programming," says Wynn, 64, of his passion for flowers.

"When we bought a house here in 1968, all I did was kill them at first. Then I joined the rhododendron society and all of a sudden I got insight."

The rhododendrons usually bloom from February to mid-June, and his garden's quality has been good this year. From April 12 to 15, the Northern California chapters of the American Rhododendron Society will host its annual conference in South San Francisco, and groups will take tours of gardens throughout the South Bay and the Bay Area.

A chapter's roots

Established in 1978, the De Anza chapter's region includes the Peninsula and San Jose. It is a spin-off of the parent chapter, which now covers the regions of San Francisco and Oakland. De Anza has about 60 members, and about 20 show up for monthly meetings.

Joining a gardening organization with the word "society" in its name conjures up images of women wearing big floppy hats and clean gardening gloves. There may be such members, but mostly the group consists of people who love rhodies, and who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty.

Rhodies, a common nickname among enthusiasts, can be fairly easy to grow for gardeners armed with the knowledge of the right growing conditions for a particular species or hybrid, members say. Talking to an experienced rhodie gardener in the club has advantages, since there are more than 850 species and more than 10,000 named hybrids.

"It's an information place," said Cupertino member Charlotte Pannel.

Gardeners share practical advice and discuss such things as soil fungus that can kill rhodies. Rhodies also prefer an acidic soil, morning sun and afternoon shade. Guest speakers are often included in the meetings where they will share photos of their own gardens or of recent trips taken where they have explored rhododendrons in other lands.

Members also exchange cuttings and seeds from their own plants.

"It's a real hoot," Pannell says. She says she's been around the flowers her entire life.

Planting seeds

Pannell's parents grew them in the yard of her childhood home, and they were also co-founders of the DeAnza chapter.

Three years ago, at 41, Pannell became a member of the club herself.

When her father died, she inherited his rhododendrons and includes them among 40 that grow in her garden. One is a personal favorite.

It is one of the hybrids her father developed and, to help carry on her father's dream, she is working through the process of propagating and officially naming and registering it with the international organization.

"I am naming it Jerry's Dream," she says.

"It has one of the most wonderful fragrances, sort of in a funky strong way."

She is drawn to many plants because of their scent and says she buys roses based on their aroma, not on the look of the blossom.

Cuttings and starter plants in Styrofoam cups covered with plastic bags line shelves in a bathroom off her kitchen. They aren't all rhododendrons, but rhododendrons are clearly a passion of Pannell's.

Pannell learned a lot from her parents. They owned 5 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where they propagated rhododendrons and sold cuttings and seeds wholesale.

Some of her fondest childhood memories are of scooping out potting mix from her father's wheelbarrow and patting it gently around her houseplants.

Growing rhododendrons helps her feel closer to her parents, and being part of the American Rhododendron Society helps her continue to learn about the plant, she says.

Global positioning

Most cultivated rhododendrons and azaleas--a related plant and member of the rhododendron family--are derived from Asian species that grow in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, western China, northern India, Burma and Assam. Japan, Europe, and eastern and western North America provide others derived from species native to those areas.

Locally, the Rhododendron macrophyllum is one that grows wild in the Santa Cruz Mountains and along the California coast, says Wynn.

Over the years he has belonged to other garden clubs, such as one for irises and one for lilies; as a child he never imagined himself a member of a rhododendron club. After retiring from his job as a NASA engineer, he has the time to garden, pore through plant catalogs and admire his rhododendrons.

"It has lavender or pink flowers. It grows in the redwood forests," he says.

One of Wynn's favorite rhodies, a tropical native, is the vireya species.

"They grow in the Bay Area with no problem. I grow them in containers and then bring them in the house," he says.

Wynn's neighbors sometimes admire his flowers, but they are often indifferent--not unlike his attitude as a boy.

"They just think I'm crazy out there--because I'm always out there," he says.