Rhododendron's 2010

Lovely blog role on 2011! I saw yellow ones in a garden I visited recently and thought they were lovely.

Your garden must be massive :) What a wonderful show,so many different colours.

Fantastic - especially like the white-pale pink ones. Gorgeous!

Ooooooh: i feel so jealous. We bought our first Rhododendron 2 weeks ago called President Rousevelte.It was hubby's choise. I am after the one named Sappho.

They really are lovely. I can understand why you like them so much.

Rohima
Sappho is a lovely one, its later flowering than many( mine is only just breaking) and it does become large in time I have to prune it most years after flowering,It depends how long you are planing ahead and how much room you have I would think 10 years would not be a problem .it is the only one in my garden that layers and roots itself. there are plenty of pictures on the net that shows its growth.
Brian

lovely colours,wish I had a great big garden .

Who could be bored with photos like these! Beautiful!

It's not that we get bored, we get PLAIN JEALOUS!!!!!! Your Rhodos are absolutely stunning, Brian.

absolutely fabulous, thank you for showing us them, yes roll on 2011.

wow love them never boring lol. am trying to do a whole bed of them .got 7 in now and a few more dotted around . the couler are fab . love the yellow and the pale pink

Cristina
Research the sizes, the tendency is to plant them to close together they grow surprisingly quick. I planted to close with quite a few and regret it now i think if I were able to do it over again i would put spot plants between for a couple of years while they fill out, heathers or other ericaceous plants.
Brian

Amazing rhodys Bjs! could you have a look at my photos and see if you have any idea about my unidentified Rhody. I bought it at Glendoick a few years ago but can't find anything like it on their website. I'm sure it was labelled as being a 'rarely offered' var. and I'm pretty sure it had a girl's name type name..the letter M is also there in my memory. It's a bit like Tidbit, but paler and greener shade of yellow. It has a very defined small red throat in each flower and they hang downwards in that lovely bell-like shape. there is no...what do you call it.....undumentum? on the leaves which are very green. Let me know if you have any ideas.....! ta!

RIGHT I WILL DO THAT B , THANKS AT THE MOMENT THERE R PLANTS B TWEEN SO IT NOT LOOKING TO BAD .I JUST LOVE THE SPLASH OF COULER

lovely and never tirer of seeing them Bjs, i especially love the white ones, great pics ;o))

You have some wonderful Rhododendrons have you ever grown the miniture ones, I have a few large ones and some miniture ones as I only have a small garden. I have just taken one of my sons witch looks as though its had it, I did get it to flower two buds, I have pruned back to new shoots hopeing this will help with a bit of feed I sprinkle and water in each spring as I have a few that are earlies, which last longer in flower.

I have quite a few small ones ,problem is although the leaves stay small most of the plant grow large.there are some that never grow more than 9in 'Pink drift' is one, but many grow to several feet.

I bought one which I have had for several years the leaves are slightly smaller than the large ones its never grown any larger since I ve had it which is 15" tall, my other one died over the winter which was a tiny purple one very miniture so have bought another to replace it which is called Ginny Gee.

I have always admired Rhodo's in other peoples gardens and never had the courage to grow them myself as i always thought they were difficult to to grow. This year we bought our first one and it has now finished flowering. Not sure what i need to do now tho. Do i dead head the spent blooms or leave them to fall off naturally. it's about 18" high.

Hi Rohima
Dead head yes ,but you need to careful of the new shoots that are directly below the old flower as these when they grow away will be next years flowers,on some varieties they grow away fast and it is very obvious they are new growth,but others for a few week you can hardly see them and it is easy to cut them off.They vary a lot some you can twist the head off just above the new shoots they are the easy ones,others cut off the seed pods with secutters ( sure thats not spelt right) tell me if you intend to grow in the ground or a pot if you no the soil PH. and the name of the plant, i may know it may not
Brian