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| Rhododendron augustinii 'Marion MacDonnell' 14 April 2026 |
Looking out of my bedroom window (second floor) I noticed that my Rhododendron augustinii ‘Marion Macdonnell’ was in bloom. I cut some and scanned them. I was then reminded of a problem related to ultra violet light.
This rhododendron is listed as being blue but it really isn’t. My now gone friend Alleyne Cook bred a cultivar version named after a mutual friend Marion MacDonnell who was famous for having first grown in her greenhouse the elusive blue poppy Meconopsis betonicifolia. I wrote about that here (below).
When I scanned the rhodo today I was not in the least surprised that is scanned really blue and not its real purple colour. Why?
It has to do with the fact that when my scanner does its job it “sees” the UV light that is reflected from the petals and makes them blue. What you see here is the first scan and then my “fixing it” to the colour I saw with my eyes.
When in school we were taught about Newton's colour theories, but we were not really told that we humans see the red side of Newton's spectrum and on the other side from green to blue to ultra violet we are not quite sure of what we see. This is why many people argue when they see turquoise if it is green or blue.
This blog might be challenging to anyone who has gotten to here. But give it a try.
Alexander Scriabin & Kodachrome plus colour temperature
