Rhododendron: Secrets Of Abundant Flowering

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Rhododendron is a wonderful plant that many gardeners grow with great pleasure. But this handsome man does not always please with good growth and abundant flowering. But this is fixable - if you follow a few simple rules, you can forget about such troubles forever! So, how to properly plant and care for rhododendrons so that they invariably delight the eye with their abundant flowering?

Site selection

It is best to plant rhododendrons near water, in semi-shaded areas. At the same time, it is important to try to avoid troughs in which too cold air accumulates or stagnation of surface water occurs. And, of course, the area where these beautiful flowers grow must be reliably protected from both cold and drying winds! If there is no opportunity to comply with all these conditions, it is better to give preference to deciduous rhododendrons - they can boast of less demanding soil and do not need shading.

In terms of soils, a humus-rich, permeable and properly aerated soil is the most suitable option for planting luxurious rhododendrons. A mixture of sand and peat, as well as completely peat soils, are especially ideal for these purposes. The general requirement for all soils without exception will be an acidic reaction: rhododendrons can boast of their best development at a pH of 3 - 5.

How to prepare the soil for planting?

The width of each planting hole for one rhododendron bush should ideally be in the range from sixty to seventy centimeters, and the depth can vary from thirty to forty centimeters. If the soils are heavy clay, then the width of the planting holes should be even greater (from 1 to 1, 2 m), and the depth, on the contrary, should be reduced to fifteen to twenty centimeters. And each planting hole is first filled with a prepared soil mixture or high-moor peat! To prepare the soil mixture, you can use sand with sawdust, fallen needles and peat, taken in a ratio of 1: 1: 1: 2, sand with sawdust and sour peat in a ratio of 1: 1: 2, as well as river sand, a combination of leafy earth with coniferous and again sour peat in a ratio of 1: 2: 1: 3. It is also recommended to add forty grams of sulfur and high-quality mineral fertilizer to the prepared soil mixture (for each cubic meter - from one hundred and fifty to two hundred grams).

The best planting material - what is it?

Ideally, these are three-year-old seedlings! However, in the absence of these, it is quite permissible to plant both younger specimens and older seedlings.

How to plant?

First, the seedlings (they can be both in containers and with earthy clods) are placed in a container filled with water and kept there until the entire earthy clod is completely saturated with water. And only after that, the plants extracted from this container are lowered into the planting holes! At the same time, it is important not to forget that it is strictly forbidden to deepen the root necks of rhododendrons! If you neglect this rule, beautiful plants will first stop blooming, and after some time they will completely die.

Further, small soil ridges are formed around the planting pits, into which water is slowly poured until they are completely saturated with moisture. And after a week or two, the soil in these places is carefully leveled, leaving only minor indentations that allow water to be retained during irrigation.

If it is planned to plant several rhododendron bushes on the site at once, it is necessary to maintain a distance of at least a meter between them. Between medium-sized specimens, it is recommended to calculate the intervals from seventy centimeters to one and a half meters, and tall specimens should be two or even two and a half meters apart from each other.

Mulching

The most suitable material for mulching rhododendrons will be the bark of various tree crops or sawdust. If desired, you can use straw, as well as fallen leaves or needles. Mulch usually crumbles around the bushes in a layer of five to seven, and sometimes even ten to twelve centimeters. And the mulching radius should be in the range from fifty to seventy centimeters or correspond to the diameter of the crowns!

As for the elimination of weeds, this procedure will have to be carried out exclusively by hand - in no case should you loosen the soil near these beautiful plants, since the root system of rhododendrons is always located near the soil surface!

Watering and feeding

Normally, from one to one and a half buckets of water are poured under each adult rhododendron, conducting similar watering two or three times a week. And young seedlings need to be watered more often, but spending less water for each bush - only half a bucket. More often, watering is carried out during the flowering period, as well as when dry weather is established. In addition, on hot and dry days, it will not hurt to spray the bushes themselves with water!

The pH of the water used for irrigation should not exceed 4 - 5 units, otherwise the leaves of rhododendrons will begin to turn yellow and they will hurt. To avoid such troubles, it is recommended to acidify the water either with concentrated sulfuric acid (1 ml per bucket of water), or, alternatively, with acetic, citric or oxalic acid at the rate of three to four grams for each bucket of water.

And rhododendrons are usually fed twice a year: at the end of flowering, and also at the beginning of July. At the same time, they respond equally well to fertilizing with mineral fertilizers and organic fertilizing. The most important thing is not to fertilize them with fresh manure!

If you follow these simple rules, rhododendrons will invariably delight you not only with their excellent growth, but also with their delightful lush flowering!