Growing and Caring for Rhododendrons and Azaleas
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Article by: Michael McGroarty Azaleas can be either evergreen or deciduous. Deciduous Azaleas are known as Mollis or Exbury Azaleas. They bloom in the early spring , Planting Tomatoes in Your Garden with vivid orange and yellow colors. , Spring is Around the Corner - How is Your Garden? They can be grown from seed , Transplanting Trees if the seeds , Managing the Hobby Greenhouse are collected in the fall , The Rich History of Wild Roses and sown on top of moist peat at about 70 degrees F. Evergreen Azaleas are known as broad leaf evergreens because they do not have needles. They bloom later in the spring, , Growing Grass Under Trees and are usually propagated in the fall , June Gardening Tips over bottom heat , Building A Foot Bridge discussed in detail at http://www.freeplants.com Rhododendrons are also broad leaf evergreens and are also propagated over bottom heat , Building Liner Ponds in early winter. , You Can't Beat Perennials For Glorious Color All Season Long The best time to prune , Spring is Around the Corner - How is Your Garden? Rhododendrons and Azaleas is in the spring , The Basic Principles Of Landscape Design right after they bloom. These plants , Mosquito Disease start setting next year's flower , Garden Heating the Traditional Way buds over the summer, , A Teak Bench: The Perfect Complement To Any Outdoor Space and late pruning , Coneflower or Echinacea - the Best Thing in Your Bed will cost you some blooms next year, so get them pruned as soon as they finish blooming. It's also a good idea to pick off the spent blooms so the plants , Rose - The Flower of Love and Romance don't expel a lot of energy , June Gardening Tips making seeds, , Gardening Tools - An Overview unless of course you'd like to grow , Lawn Mower Racing them from seed. , Bare Root Roses, What To Look For When Buying But keep in mind that they don't come true from seed. , Vegetable Growing for Beginners Seeds from a red Rhododendron are likely to flower , How to Grow Organic Cigar Tobacco pale lavender. Cuttings ensure a duplicate of the parent plant. , How to Spring Flower Bulbs How do you prune , Coneflower or Echinacea - the Best Thing in Your Bed Rhododendrons and what does pinching a Rhododendron mean? These are frequently asked questions. Pinching is a low impact form of pruning , Outdoor Lighting Fixtures are a Top Priority for Night Safety that is very effective for creating nice, tight full plants , The Basic Principles Of Landscape Design when you are growing , A Quick Guide To Fish Pond Bridges small plants , Growing Great Strawberries from seeds , A Quick Guide To Fish Pond Bridges or cuttings. Typically a Rhododendron forms a single new bud , Flower Bulb Catalogs at the tip , Greenscapes: Energy Efficient Landscaping of each branch. This new bud , Rose - The Flower of Love and Romance will develop into another new branch, another bud , Deck Swing Buying and Assembling Tips will form and the process will continue. If left alone this will produce a very lanky plant , A Teak Bench: The Perfect Complement To Any Outdoor Space with a lot of space between the branches, forming a very unattractive plant. , Best Florists Online So if you are starting with a plant , A Quick Guide To Fish Pond Bridges that is nothing more than a rooted cutting all you have to do is pinch off this new growth bud , Tips For Cleaning Your Patio as soon as it is about 3/8" long. Just grab it between your fingers and snap it completely off. When you do this the plant , A Teak Bench: The Perfect Complement To Any Outdoor Space usually responds by replacing that single bud , Building Liner Ponds with two, three, or even four new buds , Garden Heating the Traditional Way in a cluster around the bud , Choosing Lawnmowers For Cutting Grass On Tennis Courts that you pinched off. Each one of these buds , Gardening Tools - An Overview will develop into branches and eventually a single bud , A Quick Guide To Fish Pond Bridges will appear at the tip , A Quick Guide To Fish Pond Bridges of each of these branches, and of course you should come along and pinch each one of those off, forcing the plant , Building Liner Ponds to produce multiple buds , In the Veggie Patch - December at the end of each of these branches. The more often you pinch off these single buds, , Outdoor Lighting Fixtures are a Top Priority for Night Safety the more branches the plant , Garden Heating the Traditional Way will form, making a nice, tight, full plant. , Gardening Tools - An Overview This is especially helpful with young plants , The Flower Drying Game - Part 3: An Affordable Home Flower-Press such as rooted cuttings or young seedlings. But what about larger plants, , The Basics of Growth; (Part 2) Plant Energy how do I prune , Attracting Birds To Your Garden them? I prune , Chainsaws - Caring For Your Chain mine with hedge , Are There Really Black Roses? shears!!! I just have at it and trim them like I would a Taxus or a Juniper, and guess what? The result is a very tight compact plant , The Basics of Growth; (Part 2) Plant Energy loaded with beautiful flowers. , Hydroponics Gardening - An Introduction to Hydroponics Gardening for Beginners (part 19) Soil Based My Rhododendrons are so tightly branched that you cannot see through them, and that is the result of vigorous pruning , Lawn Mower Racing with hedge , Lawn Mower Racing shears. Sure you can use hand shears, and you'll have a nicer plant , Coneflower or Echinacea - the Best Thing in Your Bed because of it, but I just use the hedge , Managing the Hobby Greenhouse shears because that's the tool , Bare Root Roses, What To Look For When Buying that I happen to have in my hand as I am going by. Keeping Rhododendrons and Azaleas healthy , A Quick Guide To Fish Pond Bridges and happy is as simple as understanding what they like. First of all, they like to grow , Rose - The Flower of Love and Romance in a climate , Teak Furniture: The Premier Outdoor Furniture that suits their tastes. Many varieties of both don't like it in the north, and to prove the point they will up and die as soon as extreme cold , Mosquito Disease weather hits. Buy plants , ing Tomatoes in Your Garden that are known to be hardy in your area. Here in zone 5 (northern Ohio) the following Azaleas seem to do well: Hino Crimson (red), Stewartstonia (red), Herbert (lavender), Cascade (white), Delaware Valley (white), and Rosebud (pink). Hardy Rhododendrons include Roseum Elegans (pinkish lavender), English Roseum (pinkish lavender), Nova Zembla (red), Lee's Dark Purple, Chinoides (white), and Cunningham's (white). How should you fertilize Rhododendrons and Azaleas? These broadleaf evergreens are laid back and like to take it slow and easy. Do not fertilize them with quick release nitrogen fertilizers, it could kill them. Instead give them an organic , June Gardening Tips snack, like Millorganite or well rotted cow manure or compost. , The Flower Drying Game - Part 3: An Affordable Home Flower-Press Millorganite is an organic , Growing A Brush Cherry Bonsai In Your Garden fertilizer made of granulated sewage sludge. No, it doesn't smell any worse than other fertilizers, and plants , Vegetable Growing for Beginners like it because it is plant , Building Liner Ponds and soil , Hydroponics Gardening - An Introduction to Hydroponics Gardening for Beginners (part 19) Based friendly. It won't burn the plants, , Deck Swing Buying and Assembling Tips and it actually reactivates the micro-organisms in the soil. , Should You Hire a Landscape Designer? That's a good thing. Most full service garden , A Teak Bench: The Perfect Complement To Any Outdoor Space centers carry Millorganite. A long time ago somebody let the word out that Rhododendrons are acid loving plants, , A Portable Perennial Garden and people are always asking me if I think their struggling Rhododendron needs more acid. The answer is no. Your struggling Rhododendron probably needs a great big gulp of oxygen around its root , Outdoor Lighting system. Rhododendrons do not like wet feet. They don't even like high humidity let alone wet soil , Chainsaws - Caring For Your Chain around their roots. , Greenscapes: Energy Efficient Landscaping They like to be high and dry, and like an unobstructed flow of oxygen to their roots. , Balcony, Patio, and Courtyard Gardening You can accomplish this by planting them in a bed , How to Plant Spring Flower Bulbs raised at least 10" with good rich topsoil. They will be smiling from branch to branch. A few years back my friend Larry and I had several hundred small Rhododendrons that we were going to grow , Garden Heating the Traditional Way on to larger plants. , Teak Furniture: The Premier Outdoor Furniture We planted most of them in Larry's backyard , A Portable Perennial Garden which is fairly good soil, , Outdoor Lighting but a little sticky. We didn't have room , Balcony, Patio, and Courtyard Gardening for all of them so we planted the last 105 down the road from my house , Container Gardening in a field we were renting. (Never heard of anybody renting a field? You should get out more.) This location , Attracting Birds To Your Garden had absolutely no water , How to Plant Spring Flower Bulbs for irrigating and the soil , Bare Root Roses, What To Look For When Buying was very dry and rocky. Other plants , A Portable Perennial Garden at that location , In the Veggie Patch - December often struggled during the dog days of summer , Transplanting Trees due to the lack of water, , Lawn Mower Racing but those Rhododendrons were as happy as pigs in mud. They outgrew the ones at Larry's house , Outdoor Lighting Fixtures are a Top Priority for Night Safety by twice the rate and we sold them years earlier than the others. My point? Rhododendrons don't like wet feet. They do well in the shade, but contrary to popular belief they do even better in full sunlight. You are welcome to use this article on your website or in your newsletter as long as you reprint it as is, including the contact information , Managing the Hobby Greenhouse at the end. Website URLs must be active links. You are welcome to use this article with an affiliate link, http://www.freeplants.com/resellers.htmMichael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening , Chainsaws - Caring For Your Chain newsletter. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com |
  
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