Rhododendron stenopetalum 'Linearifolium' Highlight The bright red flowers

The bright red flowers

emerge a clean bright green

John's Wort is the older

but typically this species flowers in the fall

Rhododendron stenopetalum 'Linearifolium' Highlight The bright red flowersA three hundred year old Japanese garden azalea that does not look quite like a rhododendron, does not look quite like an azalea, and does not really look like anything else. The leaves are narrow green ribbons, three to five millimeters wide and a couple of inches long, closer to willow or fine grass than to the broad rounded foliage of an ordinary tsutsuji. The flowers, opening in late April and May, follow the same grammar: deeply divided into long