协会沿革与英国皇家园艺学会合作
杜鹃山茶和木兰组（简称 RCMG）是英国皇家园艺学会（RHS）的伙伴组织，关注杜鹃花属、山茶属与木兰属三类木本园艺植物。组织资料显示，前身杜鹃花协会由四位创始成员发起，1916 年 5 月在切尔西花展期间举行首次年度大会；组织在 2015 年取得英国注册慈善机构身份，宗旨包括公众教育、植物保育以及支持园艺师和分类学研究。现有会员遍布世界各地，规模超过 700 人。
治理架构与区域分支
RCMG 以慈善法人组织（CIO）形式运作，管理委员会负责日常运行，另设植物委员会处理三大植物属的园艺事务；植物委员会成员来自不同专业背景，围绕栽培、鉴定与保育提供知识支持。组织还通过英国各地的区域分支以及爱尔兰、苏格兰等代表网络开展地方活动，使会员能够在区域范围内参与讲座、讨论、植物交流与花园访问。本文不转载官方页面列出的个人电话、邮箱或住址。
三大植物属的收藏、目录与栽培知识
组织目前负责审计八处现存的三类植物收藏，收藏目标明确结合保育、教育与研究，而不只是展示。杜鹃花类包括英国皇家园艺学会威斯利花园的物种杜鹃收藏、威斯利的 Alan Hardy 栽培杜鹃收藏、萨里郡拉姆斯特花园的耐寒杂交杜鹃收藏、多塞特郡阿博茨伯里亚热带花园的 John Bond 大叶杜鹃收藏，以及多塞特郡明特恩花园的朱砂色亚组杜鹃收藏；木兰类包括牛津郡哈考特树木园的洛布纳杂交木兰收藏和肯特郡坎特伯雷座堂的阿莫斯·皮卡德木兰收藏；山茶类则包括威勒尔内斯植物园的山茶物种收藏。官方页面为每处收藏提供植物清单下载入口，便于核对名称、追踪保存地点并支持后续研究。与这些实体收藏相配套，组织还维护三大植物属的目录和栽培繁殖资料：杜鹃花重点说明非碱性、排水良好的土壤、覆盖和遮阴管理，山茶强调酸性有机质土壤、花芽形成期的水分和防风，木兰强调浅栽、排水以及防晚霜；这种“收藏地点—名称记录—栽培方法”相互连接的资源结构，使活体收藏能够同时服务于保育、鉴定和公众学习。
保育、研究资助与植物登记
研究工作已经形成“数据记录—名称核对—稀有度判断—繁殖保存—研究传播”相互衔接的链条。官方现存植物数据库页面说明，团队已连续八年汇集三大属仍在栽培的植物记录，数据来自植物园和其他大型公众花园、会员收藏、其他协会以及主动提供信息的公众；名称会与国际登记簿核对，再据此判断稀有程度和繁殖优先级，并寻找曾从原培育花园消失的植物，繁殖后送回。针对病害和濒危材料，组织与英格兰西南部罗斯沃恩的研究设施合作，在疫霉病危机期间通过微型繁殖救回超过 300 个独特杜鹃材料；2008 年又支持博德南特老化杂交种收藏，选取 12 个受威胁杜鹃材料繁殖，并以同样方法恢复一条重要花园步道。实验流程从成熟花芽材料诱导芽体，到培养、分离、驯化，最后形成可移栽植株；对不适合微型繁殖的山茶，仍结合扦插或嫁接，对稀有木兰则通过嫁接扩大保存数量。相关工作还保护了编号 KW9485 的稀有杜鹃材料，为葡萄牙一项近乎灭绝的杜鹃物种回归野外创造条件，并以“安全数量”策略向多座花园分散重复植株。研究资助方面，RCMG 助学金要求项目有明确目标和方法，通常须提前至少 12 周申请，完成后三个月内提交论文；公开案例包括 2017 年支持印度东北部杜鹃分类考察、支持木兰城市林业博士研究，以及 2021—2022 年参与约 20 个濒危杜鹃的红色名录评估。茶科红色名录评估 254 个物种、其中 85 个受威胁，并记录两种野外灭绝植物；受威胁物种约 51% 已进入迁地收藏，但多数集中在不到五处收藏，遗传多样性仍需加强。国际杜鹃花登记簿 2004 年第二版及后续补编，则为栽培品种核对和长期研究提供基础。
会员服务、出版物与公众交流
会员可参加英国及欧洲大陆的团体旅行、区域分支会议、展览、线上讲座和花园访问，并获得年度年鉴与每年三期的彩色通讯。年鉴自 1946 年起持续出版，内容覆盖物种、杂交、花园、栽培、繁殖、分类、探险与历史；近年版本通常为彩色纸质出版物，部分往期资料也可查询。组织还维护档案资源，收录 1946 年以来的年鉴、植物学笔记、手册、协会期刊、历史旅行记录及相关照片，为园艺史、植物收藏与分类研究提供线索。
History and RHS Partnership
The Rhododendron, Camellia and Magnolia Group (RCMG) is a partner organisation of the Royal Horticultural Society, dedicated to rhododendrons, camellias and magnolias. Its predecessor was formed by Charles Eley, John Guille Millais, J. C. Williams and P. D. Williams, and held its first Annual General Meeting at the Chelsea Flower Show in May 1916. The Group became a registered charity in 2015 and combines public education with plant conservation and support for horticultural and taxonomic knowledge. The official background page records more than 700 members worldwide.
Governance and Regional Branches
The Group operates as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, registered charity number 1161254. A Management Committee oversees day-to-day work, while a Plant Committee deals with horticultural matters related to the three genera. Regional branches and representatives in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Scotland enable members to join talks, discussions, plant exchanges and garden visits close to home. Personal contact details published on committee pages have not been reproduced here.
Plant Collections, Directories and Cultivation
RCMG’s collection programme is an active conservation and research infrastructure rather than a display list. The Group audits eight extant collections: the Species Rhododendron Collection at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey; the Alan Hardy Collection of Rustica Azaleas, also at Wisley; the Hardy Hybrid Rhododendron Collection at Ramster Garden in Surrey; the John Bond Collection of Large Leaved Rhododendrons at Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens in Dorset; and the Collection of Cinnabarina Rhododendrons at Minterne Gardens in Dorset. The remaining three collections cover Magnolia x loebneri at Harcourt Arboretum in Oxfordshire, the Amos Pickard Magnolia Collection at Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, and the Camellia Species Collection at Ness Botanic Garden in Wirral. The official collections page provides downloadable plant lists for each site, creating a practical link between a living plant, its recorded name, its garden location and future conservation work. This network is supported by directories and cultivation guidance for all three genera. Rhododendron advice stresses non-alkaline, well-drained soil, mulching and carefully balanced light; camellia guidance covers organic acid soil, protection from early morning sun and drying wind, reliable moisture while flower buds are forming, and feeding only from April to mid-September; magnolia guidance emphasizes shallow planting, protection from waterlogging and shelter from late frost. Together, the collections, lists and cultivation records make the Group’s living material useful for identification, education, propagation and research.
Conservation, Bursaries and the Rhododendron Register
The Group’s research programme links data management, identification, rarity assessment, propagation, ex situ conservation and publication. Its Extant Plant Database has been assembled over eight years from botanic gardens, other major public gardens, members’ collections, other societies and members of the public. Names are checked against international registers so that the Group can assess rarity and decide where propagation is needed; the page describes the database as a work in progress and records the parallel effort to identify plants that have disappeared from the gardens where they were raised, propagate them and return them. The propagation work has a strong applied research dimension. During the Phytophthora ramorum crisis, a rescue programme at the research facility at Duchy College Rosewarne helped save more than 300 unique rhododendrons. From mature floral-bud material, micropropagation stimulates shoots, develops plantlets in culture, separates them and gradually weans them before planting out. In 2008 the Group supported the ageing Aberconway hybrid collection at Bodnant Gardens: twelve threatened rhododendrons were selected for micropropagation and the Penjerrick Walk was re-established. The programme has also safeguarded the rare Rhododendron vesiculiferum KW9485, supported the potential reintroduction of a nearly extinct Portuguese rhododendron, distributed duplicate plants under a “safety in numbers” policy and funded further work on the difficult micropropagation of camellias. The Red List of Theaceae published in 2017 assessed 254 species and identified 85 as threatened; it also recorded two species as Extinct in the Wild, found that nearly half of the Camellia genus is at risk in the wild, and reported that 51% of threatened species were held in ex situ collections, with most concentrated in fewer than five collections. The Bursary Fund turns this evidence into field and academic work: Richard Holman received £500 for a North-East India rhododendron taxonomy expedition; Harry Watkins received £500 for research into magnolias suitable for urban forestry within a Sheffield University PhD project involving the Sichuan Forestry Academy; and Kate Lock’s 2021–2022 work prepared draft assessments for about 20 endangered rhododendrons for the Global Tree Assessment and the Red List. The International Rhododendron Register, first published in a second edition in 2004, its annual supplements, scanned volumes and companion guide provide the nomenclatural reference layer for this continuing research.
Membership, Publications and Public Engagement
Members can take part in tours in the United Kingdom and mainland Europe, branch meetings, shows, online talks and garden visits. Benefits include a Yearbook and a colour Bulletin published three times a year. The Yearbook has appeared annually since 1946 and covers species, hybrids, gardens, cultivation, propagation, taxonomy, exploration and history. The Group also maintains an archive of yearbooks, botanical notes, handbooks, journals, tour records and photographs, supporting research into horticultural history and the cultivation of its three specialist genera.
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