03-04-2025
Pictured: England's largest rhododendron is size of eight double-decker buses
England's largest rhododendron has been measured for the first time and is the size of eight double-decker buses.
The 'robust' 120-year-old bush in the grounds of South Lodge Hotel in Horsham, West Sussex, is in bloom this week, with visitors enjoying its red and pink flowers.
Paul Collins, head gardener at the hotel, said a laser was used to determine that the 'Big Rhody' is 124ft long, 78ft wide and 32ft high.
The average double-decker bus is 30ft long, 8ft wide and 14ft tall.
The arboreum smithii, a variety known as Old Cornish, was planted 120 years ago by Frederick Du Cane Godman, the Victorian explorer.
It has been maintained by Mr Collins, 55 and from Horsham, for the past 13 years. He said this year was the first time he has been able to measure the bush 'properly'.
He said the bush's floral display was less impressive than last year, adding: 'It definitely will be bigger in 10 years – as long as it doesn't die out. It's pretty robust.
'It's still big but it hasn't flowered as much as it did last year. It's just one of those things, you can do as much as you can.
'We don't put fertiliser on the outside to give it the best acidic pH but it's just one of those things – you can't really predict nature.'
Mr Collins said the rhododendron did not require much maintenance, despite its size.
He said: 'I'd love to be able to do lots to it. There's nothing we can do really. You often see people coming along who know about it – they will come in to take pictures of it.
'Some people will get pictures of themselves outside the rhododendron. When I first started 13 years ago, it was in May – it bloomed at the beginning of May,' he said.
'Over the years, it's become earlier and earlier.'
Mr Collins said the bush did not show 'any signs' of ill health. 'It will outlive me,' he added.
Du Cane Godman, a Cambridge scholar, planted the bush after his family bought the hotel and its grounds in 1883.
He travelled the world compiling a natural history classification of more than 50,000 species and gathering a large collection of rare orchids, alpine plants and magnolias with his second wife.
