Our Rhododendron is 26 years old.
When Bill and I first moved to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia the little “Rhodie” was a house warming gift from our friends, Terry and Barbara. An avid gardener, Barbara actually planted it in a corner of the front yard. “It will be protected there,” she said.
Barbie was right because the Rhododendron eventually grew and bloomed and surprised us with some amazing displays. And then she burgeoned into a giant beauty, almost touching the eaves of the house and spreading wide and well beyond her expected corner boundaries.
“Time to cut things back,” I thought, “Maybe with a trim she will thrive and be renewed.” And though I really hated the idea, I clipped away to slim her down.
Rhodie’s big displays promptly stopped.
We were lucky to see one or two flowers in a season.
She must not have liked my pruning because season after season there were only one or two flowers on display.
She was on strike, so I decided to leave her alone – no more pruning, only watering and mulch.
Years later and Rhodie has grown to enormous proportions once again. She is reaching for the eves and spreading beyond her rightful place, and she is big and fat and happy! And just look at all the gorgeous flowers! But is there such a thing as too big?
Help! So many of you, my blogger friends, are extraordinary gardeners.
To prune or not to prune. That is the question.
Wow, that bush is kickin’ butt! Beautiful flowers 🙂
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Gorgous pictures Dor!! I can almost smell the Rhodie all the way up here, but don’t ask me for advice. My gardening skills and knowledge are very minimal LOL.
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Beautiful plant with lovely flowers. Enjoy
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Those are beautiful, Dor! Unfortunately our show is over.
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I know. I have had plastic plants die. 🙂
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I have a couple of them, planted for my by my neighbor, a landscaper. One is robust and huge, the other is puny and droopy. The robust one has never been pruned!! and I am no gardener 🙂 MJ
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But summer has its own rewards. 🙂
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LOL!! I’ll bet I could kill them too :).
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So pretty! I planted one last year. It doesn’t have as many blooms as it did last year, but it survived the winter and the deer! 🙂
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WOW ! That plant is gorgeous Dora, what do you feed it on ? The blooms are stunningly large and the colour beautiful. How about sending me a cutting. Just kidding x
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I wouldn’t prune considering your last experience with pruning. It’s beautiful and unless it’s blocking windows that you need to see out of, I’d just enjoy. I have planted (and killed) many rhodies and azaleas. They do bloom in our area but not on any property of mine despite the fact that I give them acid food and talk to them. I have 3 nova zemblas right now (the red ones). One is nice. For the other two the center has died out. One is definitely getting replaced by something that appreciates me more. I have to check. Maybe I kill plastic plants too.
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Thanks Kate for reconfirming my hunch that I should quit pruning and enjoy! Bill and I are notorious for killing azaleas though – or keeping them alive but barren with heaps of love, talk and food. I actually did have an indoor rubber plant that lost its leaves one by one. “Welcome to the club.”
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The Rhododendron thrives on benevolent neglect. I do nothing but rake leaves onto its base in autumn. Maybe the leave compost over winter and make a nourishing mulch.
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Survival is the ultimate goal of course. It was harsh winter for sure, so your new Rhodie shows signs of strength and the will to live. Just don’t prune it. 🙂
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I am starting a club now… The Killers of Plastic Plants Group. You are mighty welcome! 🙂
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More confirmation that we should abstain from pruning! Now I plan to wait until the windows are blocked and the yard is one big magnificent Rhodie before wielding the clippers. 🙂
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I humbly accept membership in said club :).
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I’m not!! 😀
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Oh but Rhodie is so beautiful. I always am reluctant to prune. I pruned an out of control hibiscus plant and promptly killed it….so…there you go. Wait, haven’t you & I had this discussion about being ‘black thumbs’ before?? 😉 By the way, I love that last photo!
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Wow Dorann, this is a gorgeous Rhodie!! Love how full she is – miss the ones we had in Maine. Loved seeing yours, a wonderful reminder.
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She’s gorgeous just the way she is!
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Azaleas. I love them. My neighbor across the street (who is not a gardener and does nothing) has beautiful ones. I, who water, feed and cajol, have sticks with an occasional bloom.
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You should prune, Dor, within thirty seconds of this year’s blooms fading. If you prune later than that, you will cut off next years blooms which start forming right away. The trick is just to reach inside and remove layers of branches from deep within which is where your cuts should be. Just to open it up a bit and allow for better air circulation and sunlight to get in. You don’t want to cut all over the rhododendron in a nice even fashion or you will lose the good shape. Cut out crossing limbs, anything dead, damaged or diseased, and just a few branches here and there. Easy does it.
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And it doesn’t have to be done every year. Every other is probably good if you see that the bush is getting overgrown. Marc Viette says a good rule of thumb for pruning a shrub is to be able to toss a baseball through it. Now we don’t want that for the rhodie, but you get the idea.
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It looks healthy and happy there, Dor. Pruning must be done right after it blooms, as it sets its flowers on summer wood. It could use a bit of thinning, I expect. Remove crossed branches and dead wood, and then taking no more than one third of the total live growth, prune deep inside to create air circulation and light. There are quite a number of videos on YouTube showing how to do this. Good luck!
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Members are required to maintain a high failure rate in the garden, and an even higher failure record with inside plastic plants. 🙂
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Yes, we started the trend to black thumb gardening I think. 🙂
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I take no credit for this year’s grand display Mary… the Rhodie did it all by herself.
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Thanks for visiting my blog atkokosplace… and for the nice comment. 🙂
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They say that about orchids too. They supposedly thrive on neglect. I have managed to kill a few of those too.
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Oh, thank you so much Barbara! I have literally copied and saved your advice (and added Eliza’s too) and printed out the instructions! Now if I can only get to pruning the Rhododendron in that crucial 30 seconds after blooms fade! 🙂
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I do value Viett’s advice and have been to their nursery many times for lectures, etc.
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Great advice Eliza. Thank you! I have added yours to Barbara’s (Silver in the Barn) and saved and copied them to study before taking a stab at the Rhodie.
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What a gorgeous Rhodie, Dor, a grand dame with a past. Barbara and Eliza are expert gardeners giving sage advice . Other than taking dead wood and crossed , rubbing branches , I would be inclined to leave the lovely lady alone . But I hate to prune and my garden shows it. I let cats and shrubs have their way . ..but not children . Wonderful photos 🙂
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Hahaha! “I let cats and shrubs have their way…but not children.” I love that line. Now if I could get Barbara or Eliza to come and do the pruning at the exactly right, specific, faded bloom time, then I might go for it. On the other hand, giving the Rhodie one more year sounds more humane. Decisions. Decisions.
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I don’t think that should be a problem.
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We’re thinking along the same lines here, Dor. After reading Barbara’s instructions (horticulturally perfect, by the way) I was wondering what she would do with my roses…. I consider all of my shrubs and perennials to be at some level sentient, and don’t want to upset and frighten them by pruning too much. Crazy, maybe, but it sounds like your Rhodie took a few years to decide to give you her flowers again 😉 (and I’m sure you noticed that ‘husbands’ were tactfully left out of the previous comment….. )
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I’m with you on restrained pruning woodlandgnome, but I do think Barbara has some great tips. Actually, I didn’t notice that “husbands” were left out of our gardening dilemmas. Bill has his separate garden and his own challenges, while I am in charge of the front yard’s “Welcome” plantings. Bill mows, and has a circular bed where he only plants hardy annuals. We rarely cross paths or seek marital advice on such issues as pruning. Makes for a long marriage. 🙂
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🙂 I believe the most successful marriages have a clear division of labor 😉 Old fashioned maybe, but I’m a believer, and we tend to split up tasks along similiar lines. Only my partner doesn’t have a garden of his own…. Love to you both ❤
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🙂
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Amazing blossoms! Don’t prune! I will keep my hubby far away from your bush. My lilacs are still in recovery mode.
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I’m still debating to prune or not to prune, and suspect it will be too late soon. 🙂
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I concur with the above advice you got about proper pruning–soon after it stops blooming.
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