Description
Blue Baron rhododendron (Rhododendron x ‘Blue Baron’) suits a shaded foundation bed or a woodland edge where a full-sized rhododendron would crowd out everything around it. Mature plants hold at three to four feet tall and wide in zones 5 through 8, wanting four to six hours of direct sun, ideally before midday. Growth is slow, so give it several seasons to fill the space you have in mind.
Violet-blue buds open in mid to late spring to smaller trumpet-shaped flowers in a lighter shade, each with a lavender throat. True blue does not occur in this genus, but Blue Baron sits about as far toward it as rhododendrons get, which is why it turns up in collections more often than in parking lot plantings.
The foliage is fine-textured for a rhododendron, with narrow elliptical leaves around two inches long, glossy dark green through summer and taking on a bronze cast in cold weather. That small-leaved habit makes the plant read lighter in a bed than the big-leaved hybrids do, and it keeps a tidy mounding shape for years, though older specimens can go a little leggy at the base and stretch toward six feet if never pruned.
Site it in acidic, humus-rich soil that drains freely. Like the rest of its genus it is shallow rooted, so it wants steady moisture through dry spells but will not survive standing water, and it yellows in alkaline soil. A spot sheltered from winter wind is worth finding, since exposed evergreen foliage takes the brunt of a cold, dry winter. Space plants three to five feet apart when grouping.
