Mercury

Gardening Yearbook and Garden Oracle 47th ed. A fine deep salmon pink variety. Floricultural Certificate, Royal Botanic Society, March 10th, 1904. From Messrs Paul & Son. Paul, 1911, The Garden. A large, crimson, semi-double. Puddle & Hanger, 1960, RHS, The Rhododendron and Camellia Yearbook, No.14, pp.156, 157, Fig.44: Semi-double with 15-20 petals, orbicular, 5 cm. long x 4-5 cm wide, inner petals decreasing in size and narrower, rounded, notched at apex, outer petals slightly recurved, prominent venation. Stamens arranged in a loose, central ring and often intermixed with petaloids. Flower size about 10-11 cm. across, coloured crimson 22 with deeper venation. Leaves dark, glossy green, upper sur­face, elliptic, 10 cm long x 5 cm wide, margins serrulate, apices acuminate, tapering evenly to base. A fine variety with good foliage and large crimson flowers freely produced. Introduced by William Paul & Sons about 1900, and although the name Mercury has been applied to other varieties in old literature, those generally cultivated nowadays are derived from plants dis­tributed by William Paul. Sports: Mercury Variegated, Mercury Supreme. Synonym: ‘Mer­cury Red’. This cultivar was awarded  as an AGM (Award of Garden Merit) plant by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1993 at H5 rate (hardy: cold winter; -15°C to -10°C).