In the wild species of dwarf Rhododendron cover huge areas of moorland and mountainside in western China and the Himalaya. In the garden we make do with a few plants, but their range of colour (mainly pinks and purples, but including white, yellow and red) and their reliable flower power make them invaluable for sites that are not too dry or (with some exceptions) too alkaline.

Rhododendron hippophaeoides is rather taller than most members of the dwarf Lapponic sub-section, and in the wild it grows in quite wet places. In the garden it does well without requiring an unusually wet place, and it produces its full trusses of small pale purple flowers reliably each year.