Rhody help, please

I planted this rhody last year, don't remember exactly when but probably mid-summer. It had the buds on it then but never bloomed. The plant is exactly the same as it was when I bought it. The buds remain and I'm wondering if there is something special I should do now to encourage it to bloom this year. I figured since they grow wild on the roadside around here, all I had to do was stick it in the ground and by the same time the following year it would be taller than my house! Apparently, I was wrong?!?!?! Should I feed it something special (the guy at Sunny Farms Nursery said Alaska Morbloom, 0-10-10 would be great...bought it, used it, nothing). Help?

I moved one in mid summer and it didnt do anything until the following spring, When is it suppose to bloom? mine bloom in early spring around April.
It looks healthy, maybe wait till spring to see.

HI OUTTA, DID YOU PLANT IT TOO DEEP? DIG IT UP AND REPLANT IT ON A MOUND. ADD SOME COMPOST IF YOU HAVE IT, WATER WELL AND AT THE END OF THE MONTH PUT ON A SMALL AMOUNT OF RHODIE FERTILIZER. MIGHT HAVE TO REMOVE THE BUDS, BUT WAIT AND SEE IF THEY BLOOM THIS YEAR. DO YOU KNOW WHAT KIND IT IS?

Hi Outta From the picture it looks like you have all flower buds. Flower buds are a little more rounded and the new leaves are more pointed. It loks like you only have a few new leaves way down by the bottom of the plant. The rest are flowers. Some rhodies bloom later so I would be patient. You can feed any plant that keeps its leaves in the winter rhodie food and any plant that looses its leaves in the winter rose food. Part sun good woodland soil and you should be good to go. Your rhodie looks good when their leaves are yellowish then there might be a problem or if the leaves are rolled then it is too much water or too little. No worries I think you plant looks good and a little food wont hurt just not too much nitrogen. What color are the flowers?

Willow ~ don't think I planted it too deep, just above the soil level. Planted the entire bed, though, then put down the compost and bark.

Heidi ~ it's supposed to be red. The flower buds were on the plant last year when I bought it and it never bloomed, so don't know for sure. Diana (the local nursery at which I buy a few plants...she's a little too spendy for me to buy much there) is quite reputable and seems to know her stuff, so I know she didn't sell me bunkum.

Think I'll go out and feed it now. Thanks.

I ALWAYS FERTILIZE DURING A RAIN STORM SO I DON'T HAVE TO WATER IT IN. I HAVE A NEIGHBOR WHO IS A TALL STRONG MAN AND HE ALWAYS TELLS US TO WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER.

I agree with Heidi. Just give it some time. It looks fine. Since you planted it in the summer it probably took a while to get established and put energy into putting down roots. Best time to plant is fall and late winter/early spring. Summer can stress plants a bit because we're so dry in the summer. It looks healthy and the buds look good. I'll bet it blooms this year.
Also, you may have a smaller variety there. In general (very general) the larger leaved varieties get bigger, growing more like trees if you let them. They are very low-maintence plants and I think, a good choice for this area because they really do well here with little effort on our parts. Just patience!

Edited:
took another look at the photo. You don't know the variety? Looking at the leaves, I'd say it's not going to be that small. More of a moderate size. Also, after it flowers you'll want to decide what form you want this shrub to take. Heidi and I were talking about pruning when I was at her place. People mostly do not know the correct way to prune rhododendrons and they end up sheering them like sheep and getting a very bushy, shrubby look which, IMHO, completely ruins the natural, graceful form of the shrub. Yours looks really good right now, but try to imagine it in a couple of years if every branch on it grows 4 inches /year and ends in a flower bud. Soon the branches will not holdup the flowers. If you then do what most people do, cut each branch back (called a 'heading cut'), then each branch will end up producing two or more branches and the bushiness will begin in ernest.
I can show you one at my place that is ready for pruning this year. The branches are starting to flop. This can be avoided by pruning out the weaker branches all the way to the main trunk directly after flowering. This will enable the plant to put more energy into the branches that are left and forming flowers on those branches. If you are still coming to the party next week, I can give you a pruning 'how to' with rhodies. They are my favorite pruning subject. I love to prune.


This message was edited Feb 9, 2008 11:56 PM

Pixy ~ Thanks for all the great info, but I won't be at your place next weekend...family commitments and won't be "released" for a normal life by my surgeon until 3 March. I would, however, love to pick your mind on pruning when the time comes. I don't want this plant to get unruly because of its location, but I certainly do prefer a natural rather than sculpted look for plants.

I think it might be jean marie which is a nice red or vulcan. You prune after they bloom. Pixy had great advice. Maybe at the green elephant you can find an unruly rhodie in the parking lot and whe can show you some pruning. If not when you come here I have pleanty of ones I can show you what will happen if you don't prune. Heidi

Outta -

A good rule of thumb is to start at the bottom of the rhody and work your way up the inside. Once you've taken out the obvious - dead limbs and limbs growing back through the bush, rather than straight out, you can really see what you're doing. It's the opposite of shearing - and the rhody will be stimulated to fill in anything gangly. I rehabbed my rhodies when I moved in 5 years ago - took more than they generally-accepted 1/3 off and they thanked me for it.

I think they look pretty natural. I don't like the sheared look, either.

They bloom profusely, but are really just too big for the spot they're in now.

Katie is right about starting from the inside. When I prune a big one, I use a technique I call 'inside out pruning' where I actually sit in the tree or underneath it and look through to see what needs to go.

Katie, I think you might feel differently about the placement of your rhodies if you did some thinning cuts and opened up the crowns a bit. Then you would still have the height, but you would be able to see through the shrubs. Does that make sense? They would have a more open and airy structure and be just fine where they are. Those are handsome rhodies!

Heidi ~ "Jean Marie" rings a bell. When I planted the bed last year I didn't bother to keep the name tags (newbie error...will NEVER happen again!). At any rate best of my recollection is Jean Marie. I can only hope for a pruning "seminar" at the green thumb. That would be great!

Katie ~ your rhodies are most certainly robust! I hope mine will be that motivated as the years go on.

Katie (again) and Pixy ~ Thanks for the tips. I did feed it the other day with the Alaska Morbloom and then we had a pretty good rain, so cross your fingers. But Pixy...I'm a "sturdy" girl...don't think I could fit inside of that plant right now and if I sat on it, I would squish it like a bug, lol!

LOL. Yeah, that recommendation was just to give you an idea of the approach. Not sure that your rhody is there yet. But it helps to think of the structure of the plant from the inside out, rather than the outside in.

I had one rhody at the edge of the garden that looked like it was near death. There were literally only about 10 buds on it and only 1/2 of those opened up. I pruned it and it has totally come back. Honestly, despite my good intentions, I didn't feed it or water it. It's now filled out and looks great.

hi......... lots of rhodies here. all mine are planted up on a small mound directly in bark mulch. they dont like wet feet, (it rains alot here) so good drainage is a must. remember naturally they grow in tree duff thats mostly bark and mulch. were the buds perhaps leaf buds? sometimes i think mine are going to bloom (new plants) and they turn out to be leaves. i know i have a few that i got last fall that arent going to bloom until next year. (i hate to wait that long!!!) :P good luck, and a good time release fertilizer woudlnt hurt either and a monthly watering of something like miracle grow doesnt hurt either. have fun and happy planting!

There were a few leaves on it when I undertook the first pruning, but the buds I'm talking about were the flower buds from the previous year, most of which dried up. Bud it sure leafed out well, so I'm just happy it's still alive..

Not 15 feet from that rhody was a healthy fir tree that pulled up root in the heavy windstorm the December before last because it was sitting in water. So that rhody, at least, doesn't mind a little wet during the worst weather. Of course, in the summer, it's much dryer, but I I do think there's probably an underground stream of some sort that helps out there.