Rethinking Rhododendrons

Earlier I mentioned that one of our rhododendron plans looked like it might have to be relocated due to its proximity to our power line.  After today's expedition in the garden, I'm rethinking that.

As I plod my way through the task of getting our yard in shape I'm coming to a very blatant realization.  The people who lived here before us were lazy in the yard.  As long as it didn't look like total shit they let it be, and if it looked like total shit they covered it up.  See:  weed sheet and barkdust covering more weeds than you could imagine.

Today I was weeding around another rhododendron, about 10 feet away from the earlier problem child, and noticed it had some of the same issues as the first plant.  I also tackled the bush next to that, which SEEMED to be in lovely shape.  It was full of foliage, nicely shaped, and bloomed for a VERY short time early in the season.

Turns out that bush was such a tangle of branches I almost had to destroy the whole thing to get it where branches were in some sort of order related to the main trunk of the bush.  I suspect it had never been pruned in its life, or at least for a VERY long time.

So now my diagnosis is neglect and disease.  I bet if I pull back the weed sheet the trunk and roots of all of our bushes are being smothered by weeds.

Treatment:  prune the hell out of everything to try to bring things back to life.  As soon as the yard doesn't look totally overgrown with weeds get rid of the barkdust and weed sheet and start bringing things back to life.

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[Janell]

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