A very sick Rhody??

I think I have probably done something very wrong with my Rhody. This is the beginning of its 3rd year, and it has never been the best looking thing. I see all of the bulb shaped buds waiting to open and mine has 1 dead looking one and other strange looking things. I am posting a pic. Can anyone tell me if this is worth keeping in the ground? I also am having trouble with my azalea, I kind of equate the two plants as along the same lines and maybe I should stay away from those lines. Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Vicki

Hi Vicki - they do react to the cold weather by curling their leaves under.
Some flower buds just don't make it, especially if they are an early-bloomer.
Have you fed your Rhodies & Azaleas?
Are they planted in very heavy soil?

It looks like it will survive. Pick off all that dead stuff, back to where you see living green tissue. It will look better. Wait and see what happens when it warms up again. Also pour a bucket of water on it. If it's in a dry place it might need extra even though it has began to rain.

That particular soil has less clay than most. I did notice a couple of stems(stalks?) are bright yellow, something tells me this is not good. I have not fed them, any good suggestions? The rhody and azalea are the only plants I have trouble with, everything else thrives. Thanks for responding, I went to the rhody site and have trouble getting answers on the flowers individual sites except for the roses.
Thanks,
vicki

You can dig them up and rinse off all the dirt from the roots and replant them in good amended soil maybe in a better spot.

Vicki, They make a standard rhody and azalea fertalizer which is what I use and it works perfectly.

I agree with Willowwind regarding checking the soil and seeing if it needs to be watered. I have lost dozens of rhodies and azaelas in this yard because I have tended to plant them under the cedar trees (part shade, right?). I didn't realize 1. how much rain the cedar boughs prevent from reaching the ground and 2. how much of the rain that does get there they soak up. I can dig down in my forested area right now and it is dry dry dry, even though I have standing water in other areas.

You could try potting it as well, in rich soil in a place that it will be watered regularly, and see if that helps.

Good luck!

Rarejem, Willow You are right.
Get rid of the dead stuff. I see old flower stalks that should of been deadheaded after bloom.

Vicky, you have the same type of woodland area I have. Mostly under cedars, am I right??
I have to big rhodys that are well established, but even in winter I have to give them water. The trees have so many surface roots and will zap any water, faster than the plant can. I also use miracle grow for rhodys and pour it on the root base twice a year. Now when it come to azaleas, I have lost everyone I have tried to grow there. They just don't do well under my Cedars, Pines or Alders. So I will not try them again.

This is from last year, has geat buds to this year.
My Red

My pink

Not many plants do well under cedars because they put out a substance that will kill most of them. Most azalesa need sunshine and not much competition from other plants.

Thats kinda funny, the ones I bought said semi shade???

Willowwind... I have a lot of plants planted under cedars that do very well.... but I HAVE to keep the area watered regularly. My roses thrive there, as do my rhodies, hamamelis and daphne. I think one of the big problems with the cedars is the root system. I never realized how intense the small roots are that cedars put out are until I put my "dirt pile" for my greenhouse underneath one. I put probably a yard of soil in a pile in the fall, and could barely get a shovel into it the following spring. The fine roots that the cedars sent up were like a net running through the entire pile! They did the same thing to a pile of beauty bark after a year. I also learned the "sun" thing about the azaleas. Tilly-- they may say semi shade, but the ones that are in full sun with plenty of water here are the ones that have survived. I have also found that most that you get from the big stores are so root bound it is almost a death sentence before they are planted. Over 15 years of experimentation, I now have several that are quite large and bloom well for me each year. I think that my success ratio with them is about 5% overall though.... a lot of them lost to come up with the good ones that I have.

I find that for me both the rhody's and azaleas do better with some shade, even just for part of the day. I also think that some varieties are tougher than others overall-can take more sun, less water. I have two next to each other in a very sunny spot, and one would really be much happier in more shade, whereas the other seems just fine. Same water, same everything-they're even both purple.

Just like Rarejem, I've also killed lots of azaleas and only one rhody. I think they must just be a little fussier. I've finally got three that have survived for several years. One took off after the tree it was planted under grew enough to give it some shade in the summer, so for me they seem much more location sensitive than rhody's.

You can try pouring cold coffee around the roots of both rhody's and azaleas. Mine seem to like it when they get the occasional half-pot after it's cooled off. I don't do it daily or even weekly, just every so often. Might be worth a shot to see if it helps any.

I had a rhody grower once tell me that the size of the leaves on the rhodies gave you an idea of how much sun the plant wanted. The smaller the leaves, the more sun that the plant would like. He said that most could handle full sun (in our cool climate) to part shade, with the exception of the ones with very large leaves. According to him, the large leaved (leafed?) variety definitely need shade in the hottest part of the day.

Oh, that's interesting! Hmm, I'll have to compare leaf sizes on my purples, though I think the 'happy' one might well have slightly smaller leaves.

That makes sense - leaves are for expiration and if they're big, the surface will lose water more quickly, so sun won't be the best thing. Some of the biggest-leafed plants like part shade and moisture . . .

In my experience, azaleas need more sun and can tolerate a drier environment than rhodies.

Great comment, Susy, about it being worth giving it a "shot" (to put coffee down). No pun intended?

lol, kathy, not an intentional one, anyway (this time...)....but they do run in my family, I'm afraid....

I'll ditto Kathy on the amount of sun the Azaleas need - the more sun, the more it blooms. They do quite well in full sun as long as they have other plant neighbours, or at least that has been my experience. Just keep the root area moist.
There are some that require shade from the afternoon sun, but are usually marked as such.

Shots for the garden - well, we're into spent grounds for the microherd, shots for the gardener, and I found an older article about using fresh grounds at the base of plants to repel slugs & snails. Cool coffee for the plants sounds like a legitimate use.
Truly coffee has a variety of uses...

Mmm, I think I read the coffee tip in an organic gardening book.

Have you tried the coffee grounds around the base of plants thing? How did it work for you?

Coffee grounds are a great addition to soil or compost. Mine all go in the compost bin.

Some gardeners now are saying you should rinse off all the soil when you buy a plant and then plant them. You can get some funny soil in those containers. And be sure to loosen the roots that are on the edges when you remove the plant from the container and cut off or loosen the ones that go across the bottom.

Hi Sue - yes, but I don't always see them: some slugs wear Nikes.

Racing slugs-ugh!

Patricia -

I think that's a very good idea. Rinsing off the soil also allows you to get the roots going in something other than a circular direction for rootbound plants.

I think it was Pixydish who found some kind of pest in the soil of a plant she purchased.

Last year I was helping my SIL transplant a sale plant she rescued from some small nursery section of a department store. When we got the rootbound tree out of the pot, it was actually caked in nasty, hard clay that the plant was desperately trying to get around. The distributor of the tree had just put "nice" looking soil on the top. We HAD to rinse it off to let it breathe again.

Racing Slugs?!?!?!?!?! I couldn't quite follow where the "some slugs have nikes" came from, but it has made me LOL several times since I read it.

Now Racing Slugs? An event for the round-up? Everyone bring your favorite contender?

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

I figured she meant that some of them moved so fast she didn't see them because they had Nikes.... (What do you think the swoosh on a slug Nike would be like? Wiggly and iridescent???) but maybe she was implying that coffee grounds didn't bug them because they wore shoes....anyhoo, that's where racing slugs came from....

Hm, so what kind of race could we do for a slug? How quickly they could devour a hosta leaf? (shudder) Or just use the hosta leaf like they use rabbits in dog races?

That's Kate. She's an awesome free-associater. It's very fun to "go there" with her!!

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/AngieYee.shtml

I'm thinking the rabbit/hosta leaf comparison would be the best bet...but each racer chooses their own "rabbit". For my slug, I think that I would have to go with "iris blossom" or "fancy petunia" over a hosta leaf any time! And now I will never look at that irridescent swoosh on the little girl's nikes the same again!

Katie, I love free association if it's explained to me :) . After a day of work, my mind's like mush, so I need all the help I can get. And I want to know where they got those banana slug times from...mine are way faster...I turn around to find something to dispatch them with and they are gone when I turn around again!

from Kathy's link above:
"Snails and slugs travel at speeds that vary from slow (0.013 m/s) to very slow (0.0028 m/s)."

other categories include "exceptionally slow", "napping" & "wearing nikes", the latter being a reference to those "fast travelers" which partake of the unbrewed (still-caffeinated) coffee grounds spread as mulch around the base of a plant as a slug deterrant.

Free association is a nice name for in-depth conversation that moves from topic to topic. It's best done with someone with whom you're on the same wave-length that travels at the same topic-jump speed you do. Kate and I can easily kill a couple of hours discussing everything from space travel to the ideologies of Eastern philosophers without blinking. I think our "jump" speed typically varies from 10 to 15 minutes; depends on the topic. Wouldn't you say so, Kate?

huh?


LOL - yes, unless we've ingested copious amounts of coffee, at which point it's best to fasten your seatbelt.

Hee hee. And you have to be a researcher, philosopher, fact-sharer type, too, to really enjoy yourself, methinks.

This message was edited Mar 16, 2009 11:14 PM

And definitely, with this crowd, being on top of your game helps...I'm realizing I'm verrry out of practice and quite slow....

no problem Sue - easy to downshift with manual transmission!

Sue - I think your game is to ground us and make sure we deal with a single topic thoroughly before jumping on the the next.

Lol, Kate, very true, and I do love my VW, such a fun little car-but not terribly slow... Guess I need to spend more time driving it to get back up to speed with tangential communication...


Kathy, huh???

anyhow, off to bed...

Oh Tills -- What is the name on that hot pink Rhodie. It's quite a stunner. I don't usually go for things in fluorescent shades, but that's one I could use in a dark spot, also under a cedar. If I had to describe that color, I'd say it's about as close to Schiaparelli shocking pink as you can get.

This is an image of a vintage Schiaparelli gown in shocking pink form the 1930's. Pretty close match, wouldn't you say?

James, I hate to say this BBbbutttt. I have no clue. My DH had this place before we met. It was here then. I remember one year just after I moved in, the first time I saw it in bloom. Was so pretty, then a hail storm hit and just destory it. I cryed.
It was in the front yard next to the mobile. I had to move it as we where getting a new rolling house (bigger) And that is where I put it in 1994, has done well ( outside of some little buggy problems) I will find the old pic.

How do you get starts, never tryed????????

This was taken in 91, with one of those disposable cameras. and in the sun.

Taken same, but in shade I think or further away. I think maybe the flash, makes the color Diff. Just guessing, I always thought is was red.

After looking at the scans on DG they both suck, Sorry....
I'll get some good ones this year, have better camera.

Thanks Tills, I was just hoping you might know what it was. Don't go to a lot of trouble. It is a wonderful color, though. To tell the truth, I really wasn't really thinking about another Rhodie.....but when I saw that color.....it just socked me in the eye! LOL

My grandmother, who was somewhat outrageous, and a lady way ahead of her time, loved fashion, and loved brilliant color. Elsa Schiaparelli's designs were among her favorites. Shocking Pink was definitely her very favorite color, and I can remember her wearing it well into her 80's. When I saw that Rhodie, I was instantly reminded of her.