Living collections as a community hub to support the survival and continued enjoyment of Rhododendron in a changing world

Special Issue Aim and Objectives:

Colorful, abundant floral displays make Rhododendron one of the world’s most popular garden plants, and their diversity of habits, leaf types and climate tolerance make them popular elements in botanical garden collections. Early on, many Rhododendron collections focused primarily on displaying landscape plants with exceptional ornamental value, but climate change and other anthropogenic impacts present increasing challenges, both in collections and native populations, spurring increased interest in research and conservation. Today, botanical gardens contribute substantially to conservation programs by curating ex-situ collections, but also via research on cultural practices and climate tolerance, and by engaging members of the public. The high biodiversity and charisma of Rhododendron combined with their visibility in living collections makes them excellent choices for fostering wider community engagement, bringing together horticulturalists with people from many other walks of life to solve big-picture conservation challenges. Toward this end, we are soliciting articles that highlight programs and opportunities in Rhododendron living collections that feature, or would benefit from, collaboration between different members of the wider Rhododendron community, e.g. horticulturalists working alongside researchers or conservationists working with members of the public, to develop and implement creative solutions for the survival and continued enjoyment of Rhododendron in a changing world.

Journal Website: https://www.rbge.org.uk/science-and-conservation/our-journals/sibbaldia/

Article types and guidelines: Article types will include regular research articles, review articles, or short communications. Article formatting and editorial process will follow standard Sibbaldia guidelines. Sibbaldia is a diamond open access journal, there are no page charges for submission and published articles are available free of charge online.

Sibbaldia Editor: Kate Hughes

Guest editors: Alan Elliott, Juliana Medeiros, Connor Ryan, and others to be determined.

Manuscript due date: January 10, 2026

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  1. History, culture, and human engagement with Rhododendron, esp. at public gardens
  2. Collections of exceptional relevance for research and conservation
  3. Ex-situ conservation methods and practice - outcomes of projects or ways of conducting projects that engage different groups of people
  4. Deficient data species as well as species and populations poorly represented in living collections - areas of collections and research need
  5. Taxonomic uncertainty in collections management and conservation, role of interdisciplinary collaboration
  6. Preservation of natural genetic variation in living collections, theory and practice
  7. Community engagement in living collections - esp. engaging community members to meet research and conservation objectives
  8. Reconciling Rhododendron as a horticultural staple, conservation concern AND potentially problematic invasive – e.g., R. Ponticum in the UK
  9. Local author contributions and/or translation of abstracts into English to bring attention to local issues underserved areas for collections development
  10. Climate change challenges for collections
  11. Student-driven projects