We came from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1349644/
That Rhodie in the pic is 'Polar Nacht'. We have two at the moment but they are very hard to keep alive. Phytophthora loves these guys. I had to move them once so far and when I did, I amended the soil with stone to add drainage. I've slowed the limb loss to a crawl. Hopefully it will be a good year for them as they have survived the winter nicely.
Love--LOVE--that color, Jeff! One of my favorite colors in the garden--
along with the deep blue purples...(think Petunias)...
I am not shopping for anything!!!! Have too much as it is.... G.
Gorgeous color, Seq.
New threads are popping up all over Mid Atlantic along with the new plants!
Haha...yeah I can't post a thread now without a pic to start it off. This is one of our most beautiful Rhodies...second only to Kokardia.
that dark patch gives it some personality! But when will they bloom, about?
Usually late April. We have 15 different rhodies so it looks really pretty around here that time of season.
ahh thanks
I still haven't been able to keep a rhodie alive. It's too dry in the front and too sunny or wet in the back.
Yeah they aren't the easiest plants and I've had my share of deaths but they are so worth it IMO. I don't know why but I just love them so much. We used to have more but some have died off due to various issues. I almost lost one of my favorites last year due to the drought. Luckily I caught it in time but it had already lost all but last years leaves. We'll see how it recovers this year. Lately, I've been getting into deciduous Azaleas, which are also in the Rhodie family. We now have 9 different ones but 7 of those have been planted last fall or this spring. I'm excited to see how they do.
I've been looking for a pale pink deciduous azalea. I actually saw some at Lowe's the other day. I need to go back and pull the trigger...
Yeah for sure. Most of ours are late bloomers. June/July type.
SS--
I have some pink Azaleas---but they are not deciduous.
Here are all of them...
#1--LOVE this one in --it is small--growing in tight quarters in my small, front bed.
#2--This one has existed in VERY tight, total shade area between my Camellia Bush
and a BIG old Yew--near the house foundation. .
#3--Got this one from a man that used to work at my HD. He hgave me some cuttings...
It is called: "Koromo Shukibu"...
#4--close up of the above--different lighting...more true to the way it really looks.
#5--I have one each of these at each corner of my house in the front--
They are old as the hills---grow BIG--and are deciduous. The leaves are fuzzy...
I think it is called "Lake.....something"... I cut it back very hard every other year
or I could not walk past it--it would cover my little side walkway from the driveway
to the back of the house.
All these bloom in May here... Gita
they are gorgeous, Gita!
I love that pink one, #3! What a pretty pink color.
I'm looking for a deciduous one since the spot I have in mine is in almost full sun. I'm thinking about pruning it to keep it tree shaped.
SSG:
Check out Greer Gardens or Mountain Mist Nursery for deciduous azaleas. Greer has an awesome selection and they send their plants very well packed and in great condition. Mountain Mist is a smaller place but they have excellent quality stuff too. They were so nice when I bought from them that they gave me a free plant because one of the ones I purchased was a little undersized!
Thanks, Seq, I'll check out both!
OMG you should see the camillias!!!!! Thanks so much for reccomending Greers!
Yehudith
SS--
In my pictures above--#3 and#4 are the same Azalea.
It is just the lighting that makes it look pink in #3. It is more like #4.
G.
Sure thing! I love promoting businesses that serve us well :) I'm actually looking at Greer to get a couple of new Rhodies. This Rhodie talk from yesterday has rekindled my interest and I found some gems on there.
Just purchased these two gems from Greer:
1st pic is Frank Galsworthy
2nd pic is Coral Mist
Can't wait to see them in the garden!
Jeff,
AH A rhodie man!! Excellent. WELCOME.
Frank Galsworthy i have seen locally and actually have a cutting growing from an American Rhododendron Society chapter member (Mason-Dixon Chapter). I have yet to see a bud though. http://www.rhododendron.org/performers_intro.htm
Be careful of purchasing shrubs from West Coast nurseries. Consider the process involved in growing Rhodies. The most common form of reproduction is through cuttings. Cuttings are removed from a mother plant year after year, eventually the mother plant succumbs to old age and is retired (mature plants are harder to root). You have to expect the plant to adapt to conditions over time.
I don't want to discourage you from collecting Rhodies. Just to consider local sources first. I want nothing more than a wide variety of cultivars to survive and in fact volunteer my time in order to do so.
WW Nursery is 3 hours from you but they specialize in Rhodos and Azaleas. I have always wanted to visit Hershey Azaleas in Gap, PA about 40 minutes away.
I encourage you to check out your local chapter which is about an hour from you in the Morris Arboretum. The meetings are always full of information, plants, and like minded individuals. If nothing else go for a sale!
http://www.gpchapterars.org/
http://www.gpchapterars.org/events
There are certainly individuals online more knowledgeable than myself. It is a hobby of mine and I have only been serious about the genus Rhododendron for a few years, there is a lifetime of information to enjoy.
http://www.hikinginthesmokys.com/gregory.htm
A Virginian, Don Hyatt, is the most knowledgeable person I know about deciduous azaleas. There is a wealth of information on his website. http://www.donaldhyatt.com/
Mark your calendar for 2016, the American Rhododendron Society convention is being held in Williamsburg, Va!
http://arsasaconvention2016.org/
Wow that's a load of great information! Thanks Terp! I love Rhodies and have been into them for several years now but I have so much to learn about them. I'm just getting in to deciduous azaleas and this will be my first season with most of the ones we have. All of the Rhodies we have with the exception of the two list above have been purchased from local nurseries. I guess if the ones I get from Greer don't look rooted well I'll just leave them in the pot for the season. I'm getting the smallest size (6-10") so we'll see.
I got 5 new azaleas last year - 2 from Terp's ARS chapter sale, 2 deciduous from the Ace Outback fall clearance sale, and 1 from the Dutch Plant Farm fall clearance sale. Hope they all made it through the winter, we'll see.... I've never planted many shrubs, but started to focus on them more last year.
I have this native azalea growing all through the woods. It usually blooms late April.
Identify it!
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~dhyatt/ars/pinkchoice.htm
cute- One pf the native azaleas is called pinxter flower, which is a cute name IMHO. I'll be delighted to see my only deciduous bloom this year- gift from Terp. I have another evergreen azalea which has been mostly ever-wilted for the last two years, which I think needs to be put out of its misery.
I'm glad we have a resident rhodie/azalea guru to go to so I have a local person to ask all my questions! Nice site Terp~!
Okay, not to jump the gun on a bulb buy for fall of 2014 ;-) but I just saw this in Brent and Becky's catalog:
https://store.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/spring/productview/?sku=03-0138
Needless to say, I think it's gorgeous!
You may, or may not, know that HD is having its "Black Friday" extravaganza
this week. Started on Thursday--and it goes until April 13th.
Do you get their ad in your paper on Wednesday? If not--here are a couple things
you may want to look into.
(The 5/$10 all end 4/13.)
--Brown, colored Mulch--5/ $10--4 days only--ends
--MG 1cf. garden soil--5/$10
Bonnie 4" vegetables and Strawberries--5/$10.
********************************************************
--4" pansies--88 cents
--Gallon VigoroBlueberry plants--reg. $8.98--3 for $12
--HUGE Arborvitae shrubs--in 7gal pots--$19.99 --(reg. 39.88). Call for availability..
--3 gal. Vigoro Scotch Bloom--$21.98
--7' tall Majesty Palms--$9.88 (reg. $16.98)
--All veg. and herb and flower seed packets--buy one--get one free.
Your Choice--$7.88----Special Buy--Bayer Advanced Lawn and Flower care--
(see below)
eg. 4lb. 2-in-1 Systemic Rose& Flower care granules
eg--All-in-One Rose and Flower care Concentrate
eg--32oz. Lawn Weed and Crabgrass killer spray--concentrate
--2 gal. Round Up brand Heavy Duty Sprayer--$9.88--reg. $19.92
--1.5cf MG-Organic Choice Garden Soil--2 for $10.
$5 off a gallon on Behr plus ultra interior paint
$20 off same--in 5gal. buckets....
Lots more--that is NOT garden oriented....Don't miss out!!
This add ends Apr. 13th.
***They should pay me for advertising all this.....just looking out for you all here...
Gita
Thumbs down for the systemic rose & flower care....
Nice ad though G! My coworker is stocking up on the 5/$10 Scotts mulch bags.
''Thumbs down for the systemic rose & flower care...''
please elaborate
Confession! I went to buy zinnia seeds and picked up a $5 Persian Shield. I was not happy about the price but my plant has 5 cuttings that I can harvest.
it is an awesome plant, I have read rave reviews
Systemic insecticides with imidacloprid are toxic to pollinators. Bayer doesn't list it on their environmental hazards but this pesticide is toxic to bees. You shouldn't be applying it while the plant you're protecting is in flower. This and others like it are being blamed for Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder. I started using systemics last year and they worked great until I found out from people on here that I was actually killing pollinators in addition to the unwanted insects. This spring, I've searched long and hard for alternatives that are bee safe while still effective on the unwanted pests. It's tough but I think we need to be responsible for the bees because they help us gardeners. I personally love the bees and very much enjoy having them visit my garden.
You might find this interesting
http://www.vicbeekeepers.com.au/what-is-wrong-with-our-bees-.html
Yep. As for me, I'll try my best to use pesticides responsibly. Unlike Imidacloprid, permethrin isn't toxic to birds. I'm going to treat our berry producing shrubs (if needed) with Bonide 8 Vegetable, Fruit, and Flower. In fact, a lot of people use it to treat for bugs on their chickens. I'll just have to wait until the bloom is over. Also, on my roses I was going to use Bonide's Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew, which is made from spinosad and is only toxic to bees when wet. Applying around dusk would prevent unwanted issues there. This is mainly to kill those darned JBs.
Interesting link, Sally. I had also heard some kind of bee virus or bee fungus as a possible cause?
Well, I decided to do my part (such as it is) and got a mason bee house for my garden this year. I really enjoyed having all the gentle bees in my garden last summer. I hope they use it! Now to find a place to hang it...
Sweet Cat! It almost looks like a fruit :)
yes, the beehouse melon! Get yours at the supermarket today! ;-)
Catmint I love your Mason Bee House. I'm putting one on my 'wish list' or to build list.
Here is an interesting summary of Mason and Honey bees as pollinators.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/bees/msg021240029295.html
" My grandfather was a beekeeper and told me that honey bees were the best pollinators around. However, my research on the internet and my discussions with other gardeners has shown me Grandpa was wrong.
I grow lots of fruit. Recently, I started a small orchard in my yard. I have persimmons, apricot, Asian pears, plums, jujubes, peaches, cherries, paw paws, raspberries, figs, blackberries, blue berries, huckleberries, goji berries, strawberries, pomogranites, and kiwis. My vegetable garden includes eggplants, melons, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, squash, and pole beans and all need bees.
So you can see I have an interest in pollinating all of the above, otherwise my garden would be adversely affected.
Since honey bees are a social bee, they communicate with each other about where to find the sources of pollen, nectar and water. Therefore the first blooms to open get the first attention. If you watch closely, the bees will exit from the hive and go straight to the blooms that opened first during the season. Bees become fixated, when a nectar source opens, the bees concentrate on that source, becoming fixed on that and little else until the bloom period for that plant is over. If your blossoms open a few days after your neighbor’s blossoms, by the time your neighbor’s blossoms have finished, your blossoms are half over, and old blossoms do not pollinate well, if at all.
A bee that flies in cool, damp and cloudy weather, which honey bees don't, is also needed. It is also important that the maintenance of the bees doesn't require a great deal of time, which most gardners do not have. Since the blooming period is often short, the bees need to be able to work quickly and not get fixated on one nectar source. Mason bees are the ideal solution. Mason Bees only fly approximately 300 yards from its nest site, thus helping to ensure pollination of your blossoms, not your neighbor’s.
Mason Bees (MB) are solitary and there are numerous strains. They do not need a nest site with thousands of workers for support. While they do prefer others of the same strain around, mainly for mating purposes, the females do most of the work in provisioning the nest tube. The males are good pollinators in their own right, but their forage is for their own use, and not for their offspring.
MBs nest in tubes, under natural conditions, mainly those left by burrowing insects. With the removal of mature trees there has been serious habitat loss, so MBs are in short supply and nest sites should be encouraged.
These nest sites can be simple blocks of wood 3 - 6 inches deep, holes drilled approximately 5/16ths inch in diameter. The females will first close off the back of the nest tube with mud on the bottom plug she will use pollen as the feed plus a small amount of nectar, and lay an egg. This section is then sealed with a mud plug, then immediately she will start on a second nursery cell and so on till she gets towards the front of the tube at which time she will lay unfertilized eggs, creating males. Under good conditions MB females will lay at least 3 females and 2 males per tube, after which she will seal the end and move to a second nesting tube.
Unlike honey bees, MBs carry the pollen in a sac beneath the abdomen. When a female lands on a flower she dives in belly first, right in the middle of the blossom stamens. Whereas a honey bee lands on the side and walks down looking for the nectar site, possibly brushing past the stamen in passing. Each blossom needs up to eight visits to effectively pollinate them. MBs will do a better job, purely because of their approach to each blossom.
It should be obvious that MBs main interest is pollen whereas honey bees interest is nectar for honey making. So with honey bees pollen transfer is accidental, but with MBs, transfer is deliberate. As the honey bee carries the pollen in baskets on the back legs, brushed there when the bee cleans itself, so transfer is accidental.
The MB is a hard worker, visiting hundreds of flowers to charge each egg site with pollen and the increase in fruit crops using them is well documented, in some cases up to a 4 fold increase. Unlike honey bees, they will start earlier in the morning, finish flying later in the day and cool damp weather doesn't prevent them working.
In a few short weeks, the nest tubes are sealed and the larvae then eat through their stores, pupate, then wait in the tubes till next spring before emerging. The outer eggs turn into males, which emerge a few days before the females, then hang around waiting to mate with the emerging females.
Caring for MBs cannot in any way be considered labor intensive. They work without supervision, sealing off their young from predation with mud plugs. Some provision should be made to stop wood peckers accessing the nest site and then late in the fall the nest site should be taken in, opened and the cocoons cleaned to prevent infestation by pollen mites. This is a learning experience and ideally a search on the internet for Mason bees or Blue Orchard bees will supply sites where more information is available and where bees can be purchased."
thanks, Coleup! Very good information. I'm hoping that the mason bees like it.
I got mine from Amazon. I visited a few nurseries asking about it, but they didn't have them.
I put mine on my birdfeeder pole, but this may not be protected enough for them. I may need to put a nail in somewhere to provide a more protected spot.
