You learn something new every day

Well I never knew that some Rhododendrons have wavy leaves

I've just got rid of one large one (gave it to neighbour's son) because I thought it wasn't doing very well and I've moved a Baden Baden because it was in a fairly sunny aspect but because the leaves were wavy I have moved it into a pot in a more shaded position.

I was looking for another Rhodo and came across Baden Baden on the Loder website, where it indicates that the leaves are "twisted and wavy". Apparently it's not the only one either.

Oh well, at least now i know

 

I've now learnt something new too. Rhododendrons are probably my absolute favourite shrub, I have quite a few and have visited a number of gardens with huge collections but never seen or more likely noticed specimens with wavy leaves. Until you informed me if I'd seen leaves like that I'd have thought the plant was in trouble!

 

Here's a pic of Baden Baden:

 

Someone once said” Every day is a learning day” which I think is quite true.
I was told something yesterday which I never knew before and this was that from some time in the 16th century I think until 1958,which is not that long ago, it was officially illegal to celebrate Christmas in Scotland!
Christmas was seen to be a Catholic religious celebration and was therefore outlawed. Some people did celebrate but in a very muted way.
I don’t think many people were prosecuted, however, this would explain why until really my generation Christmas in Scotland was no big deal and the big celebration was New Year. I remember my late father saying he worked on Christmas Day in Edinburgh and there was a post.
While I was growing up in England we often came up to Scotland at Christmas time I was always surprised at how little, in comparison to down south, was done for Christmas, presumably because the ban had only just been lifted.

 

True @hailbopp! Christmas Day didn't become a Public Holiday in Scotland until 1958, and Boxing Day was declared one in the 1970s.
John Knox and Calvin had quite a lot to do with the outlawing of Christmas in Scotland. Hogmanay, being non-religious, was fixed on as the big winter celebration, and it still is.
I've often felt sorry for any children evacuated north of the Border during WW2. Poor little souls, as if they didn't have enough to bear, without the joy of Christmas being taken from them too.

 

My grandparents were married on Christmas day as it wasn't a holiday up here - just another day, and it wasn't a holiday when my Mum [their daughter ] was growing up. I was born in 1957, so I don't remember it not being a holiday, but I knew about it because of my mum and her parents. Hogmanay was always the main event up here when I was young, not that I had any interest in that as a child - and still don't!

I worked many Christmas days though, as I worked with horses.