dwarf rhododendrum

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norsam Jul 31, 2011

Will a dwarf rhodie do well in a very large ceramic pot on a porch? Shady all day with about 4 hours of sun in afternoon. Any rules for planting?
Also, we planted 4 dwarf rhodies in front of house - same conditions - and no flowers for 2nd season. When we bought them, they had loads of blooms but haven't bloomed again. Would appreciate any help.

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themoonhowl Prairieville, LA(Zone 9a) Jul 31, 2011

Norsam, here is some info for you that should help answer your questions.

http://www.ehow.com/how_8164106_grow-rhododendrons-containers.html

http://www.paghat.com/rhodies_sun.html

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Jul 31, 2011

What zone are you in? If you're toward the lower end of their hardiness range you may have trouble with them in pots over the winter, but if you're a couple zones warmer than the lower end then you should be OK.

As far as the ones that you planted--some shrubs will take a couple years to get going so as long as they're healthy you may just need to be patient--hopefully they will give you some blooms next year. Only other thing I can think of is if you've pruned them at the wrong time of year that can prevent blooming, but if you haven't pruned them then you probably just need to give them time.

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WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom Aug 15, 2011

You need to check your soil as Rhododendrons small, big or whatever like acidic soil, they don'tdon't like to be buried in the soil deeper than when they grew in the pots, in fact Rhodo's are quite shallow rooted plants, they spread their roots out-wards rather than down-wards, if you live in a cold winter zone, you either give the root area a mulch of leaf-mold or peat, this helps prevent the shallow roots from getting frozen or frostbite.

You don't prune Rhododendrons ever unless they have really outgrown there space after many many, years, as soon as the flowers open and then wither, you very carefully nip off the spent flowers so the next years flower buds are exposed, if you prune you are cutting off the next years flowers.
To nip off the old flowers, hold the top of the stem in right hand between finger and thumb, then bend over the dead flower so ONLY that bit of the stem is removed, if you look closely at the flowers you can see the new buds being formed, should you remove these buds, you wont get flowers the following year, it all sounds very complicated but, believe me, once you know what you are looking at, you can easily deadhead several large Rhododendron shrubs in an hour, add a mulch AND a handful of acidic plant feed, after flowering Rhododendrons don't go to sleep like other shrubs, they are busy making flowers for next year and new foliage, take your time to examine your little shrubs and they can tell you what is missing when things are not quite right.
Good luck. WeeNel.

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