Hollard Gardens

Family: Ericaceae (Heath)

Life form: Shrub - evergreen

Comments: Habit: Compact, dense, wide spreading shrub 3.5m x 6m.
Foliage: Large (20 x 10cm) elliptic obovate leaves, dark green above with a thin layer of silvery indumentum below.
Flowers: Full umbels of 20 tubular campanulate flowers, pink in bud, opening apricot pink, fading to cream flushed pink to white with deeper pink spots. Early (September-October) flowering, flowers are long lasting on the plant and can the flowering can extend over 6 weeks.
History: Open pollinated in Pukekura Park from R. macabeanum. The other parent is assumed to be an unnamed white hybrid that was flowering nearby at the same time as macabeanum. Expert nurseryman George Huthnance was always on the lookout for new material and in the late 1940s to early 1950s he raised hundreds of new plants from seed. Some of his seedlings were planted at the newly developing Pukeiti. Many of these plants still survive nearly 70 years later, providing masses of pastel colours early in the spring on handsome foliaged large shrubs.
R. Ina Hair was selected by Graham Smith as one of the outstanding performers from this cross and is named after the wife of Pukeiti curator, Rob Hair. Ina was Lodge hostess for many years and provided a warm welcome and information for all who visited Pukeiti in the 1960s.
Further information: Available from rhododendron nurseries in New Zealand.