Gardening Thread - Show me your gardens!

Did you say 2022 that you pruned it and there is no new growth? If so then they are probably done. If you pruned them last year and this is the first spring then I would wait as I suspect they will come back. Rhodys are tough. I have planted a bunch of them or hard pruned them myself and they have always come back great. I was given some that had been torn out of the ground, bare roots and not anything green on them and those plants are now 30 feet tall and 20 feet around.

As for the prickly bushes I would get out my MAPP Gas blow torch and toast those suckers so I did not have to go near them. A well directed, narrow flame will not hurt anything else and you have hardscaped in the planting bed so nothing should catch fire. Plus it will suck trying to get to those roots amongst the rocks.

 

I had to googles the rhododendron regrowth.
It said 3-4 yrs and you can hack it back that far....leaving 12-15" and cutting them at different heights.

 

According to Google University you may still have time if you pruned end of 2022.

 

Yup, end of 2022 if I remember correctly.

I might give it to the end of the year/into next spring, since I would replant something in spring of next year anyway if it goes. But I won't hold my breath/push it.

Good idea, might give it a whack. I pulled out a lot by hand.

^^ Yeah, noted as above, I might give it another season and wait until next spring to officially call it, since that's when I would replant something anyway.

 

You can prob scape a little bark down low to the ground see if its green or dead.

 

It's too bad we have to wait so long to find out if the rhododendron survives......
I might forget all about this by then.

 

It's dead Fart. D-E-D

 

If there is no new growth at all from last year then it is done.

 

The first time I hunted in the mountains here I made the mistake of thinking I could cut across a holler to the next ridge. Rhododendron choked down there along small springs, lots of hog sign and thought I might not make it back out alive. Like having to crawl through barb wire fences every 3’. lol. Stick to the ridge tops.

Survival of the fittest when trimming shrubs. If they die I didn’t need them anyway and dam the time of year it is.

 

Wow, that’s some hard pruning there!
Sounds like you attempted some major rejuvenation pruning there!

I’d give it this growing season to see if it recovers. Plants are pretty resilient…

The prickly leaf weed is a type of thistle.
Based on the leaves, it does not look as bad as the bull thistles which are a pain in the ass!
Invest in a decent gardening hand trowel with serrated blades for those pesky weeds.

 

Love the dappled willows!
As a matter of fact, I love all willows!
They’re so easy to care for and are great for wildlife.
I’ve been raising a few varieties of ornamental and osier willows upstate and have a fondness for most willow species.

 

Corn has tassels…

 

First pickings.

 

Already? Wow

 

Yum!

 

Google Academy said I could hit it to basically anything. There was an invasive weed/vine growing through it that I got rid of, it was getting way too big and unruly, so I went scorched earth with that knowledge.



In my defense, it's also "just" a rhododendron. I have another one I planted a couple years back that's thriving. I might replant another one, might plant something else. Who knows! But since I would do that in the spring, anyway, I'm going to do the least effort possible to nurse this one back to health and see if it recovers this year.

 

Rhododendron is a medicinal plant. Not berries, though.
https://agricultureandfoodsecurity.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40066-019-0251-3/tables/4
https://agricultureandfoodsecurity.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40066-019-0251-3#Sec5

 

I don't think you did anything wrong. I would have offered the same advice as I have found them indestructible and no matter how hard I have pruned them or how abused the plants have been they have always done well with hard pruning. People often buy these plants in one gallon containers and then plant them 2 or 3 feet from the side of the house. When the plant matures they are a problem plant. That happened to my in-laws. They could not see out their windows. I pruned those bushes down to a foot or so off the ground and you can't tell they were pruned 3 years later. I will plant any future rhody's at the wood line away from the house, somewhere they can grow and expand as much as they would like.

 

Now, who would EVER do such a stupid thing