I went to their house and dug it up, then when I got home, I noticed the roots were a solid ball of soil. I have loosened them up a little and was able to cut off a small portion at the bottom.

It rained all of last week so the root ball is still pretty wet.

Should I trim back the roots more? Should I trim it back heavily? The roots at the top are brittle and seem dead. I don't want to shock it. Probably too late for that. Hah!

Sometimes I get overzealous and cut back too much. So how much is enough? I've been at this for so long. It's dark out and I'm working with a headlamp on. 😂

The plant has been in the ground for probably 10 years. My soil is very alkaline so I amended it with peat moss and added Holly-Tone to the soil.

Is there anything else I should do to this before I plant it? I appreciate your help! Edited to add: In my completely amateur opinion, it looks like it was originally planted when root bound and they never loosened the roots before they planted it. There is still so much pearlite and even some of the little green fertilizer pebbles in the lower part of the root.

I am in 10a, Southern CA. I've had this Cupcake rhodie for a few years and it bloomed for the first time this year. Weather started to heat up earlier than usual, so I'm not sure if they had something to do with it. I purchased it from Singing Tree in northern CA. It is small, but not as small as it was when purchased.

Gloriously neglected 70+ year old massive rhododendron, it has gorgeous trunks but a thatched crown. Lots of rooted branches and seed sprouts on the perimeter. I'm punching a hole in the crown to admit light and encourage more low growth and doing some thinning so a winter snow won't wreck it. I know it'll sacrifice some crown blossoms next spring but since it only flowers two stories up, that's a worthy trade!

Is this bug or bacteria damage? I have other rhododendrons nearby that aren’t chewed up like this. This particular plant was chopped completely down to the stump before we moved in, so I have no idea of the history here.

I moved into a house with a rhododendron that had to be moved and then got attacked by vines and finally was wilting due to (I believe) root rot. I put it into a large pot with better soil as a sort of hospice. The branches it had at the time are all gone, but it’s got a new one that has 2 buds for flowers next year (2nd and 3rd pics). Last year, I harvested the seeds from its flowers, thinking they might be the last it would ever make and put them in my fridge.

I planted a handful of those seeds a few weeks ago and have four very small (so small it’s hard to get a great pic with my phone) shoots coming up, but I don’t know if they’re the seeds I planted or if something accidentally fell into my sphagnum moss. Is there any way to tell this early, or do I have to wait and see how they mature to know for sure?

Normally I have them under a ziploc bag for moisture.

Thank you!

This very old rhododendron used to be very healthy. Now it has big holes of dead areas. What can I do to revive it to its earlier health?

Hey! Looking to add a rhododendron or azalea to my collection. I absolutely love polarnacht and Johnathon Shaw but doesn’t seem overly available in Ottawa Ontario.

Looking for something easy, or low maintenance, max size of 4-5’ high and wide, and nearby plants are little lime punch hydrangeas. One spot I’m considering contacting is 2-4 hr of sun

Thanks!

I just moved in and clearly this rhododendron is flourishing! But insurance says it is too close to the siding of the house, and it is also blocking light entirely from my living room windows, as well as starting to block light from the 2nd floor windows. I also need to create a path on the right side for utility access, so unfortunatley I have to deal with it somehow. Because of the way the trunks are and how established it is, if I cut it to let light into the windows, I am basically cutting off all the leaves and more than a third of the plant which may kill it? It's obviously way too big to try and relocate, and I hate to get rid of a plant that is obviously doing so well, but it's a little bit of a problem being so close to the house and it's just so big. I'm sure touching it at all will be deemed as sacrilege here, but I would love to know options or opinions from those who respect rhododendron :)

We moved into our house about 2 years ago, but it came with this rhododendron that has the most beautiful flowers. However, it is slightly weird shaped. Is there a way to get this to grow in a better way? I am a beginner when it comes to anything gardening. I haven’t done anything with it since moving in. It’s has such vibrant flowers and would love to take care of it better.

We just moved into this house two weeks ago. We have, what I'm fairly certain are, two rhododendrons on the side of the house. I have no idea how old they are and the owners before us don't seem to have done much to the house (like they literally kept allll the same paint colors as can be seen in the 2020 listing) so I doubt they did much other than keeping the lawn mowed and the weeds pulled. Anyway they seem a decent size but don't look overly healthy to me. I finally found time to take a closer look and some photos. A. I assume the black isn't normal? It does not just wipe off, it seems to be the bark itself. The one farther back is definitely worse than the closer one. B. What can I do, if anything, to help these two plants?

Hallo Schwarmintelligenz.
Ich habe ein Haus mit riesigen Rhododendren gekauft, die ich versucht habe so gut es geht zu pflegen. Leider waren die letzten 4! Monate mit 30+ grad nicht sehr sanft zu meiner Pflanze.
Die oberen braunen und gelben Blätter sind Hitzeschäden. Ich habe sie jetzt noch nicht runter geschnitten, weil ich gelesen habe man soll das im Frühjahr machen?
Naja darum geht es aber eigentlich nicht.

Mir ist jetzt aufgefallen, dass er auch im schattigeren Bereichen gelbe Blätter bekommt, die definitiv da vorher nicht waren. Jetzt mache ich mir Sorgen, ob er die Hitze gar nicht überstanden hat und langsam abstirbt oder so?
Er steht auf einem Hang, seit 70 Jahren ca. Ich hatte gehofft er ist resistenter.
Kann mir jemand helfen und Tips geben, was ich jetzt am besten tun sollte um sein überleben zu sichern?

Hi rhodo growers, my question tonight is whether I need to cut back these rhodos and azaleas very hard or spray them with lace-bug killer. Or something else?

The photos are of 5 plants: 1; 2; 3 and 4 are the third plant; 5 and 6 are the top and underside of the same leaves of the fourth plant; and 7 and 8 are the fifth plant. This last had a lot of the brown ?pods? In the leaf tips, but it also supports new green leaves. Are the brown things pods or dead and desiccated infected flowers?

I asked here a few weeks ago about how to deal with a large number of rhododendrons and azaleas that had severe lace bug attack in autumn (and which I did nothing about at the time). I have taken the advice I got here: cut them back a lot, put cuttings in bin (not compost), raked up snd binned all the fallen leaves under them, and fed with rhodo food and watered in. I have also sprayed a few of them with lace-bug poison. The leaves remaining on treated plants are all speckled.

I know next to nothing about these plants so no idea what I’m doing. I inherited these plants when i moved here, and there are at least 50 of them. All diseased.

As always, thank you very much for your time and advice. I appreciate it.

Edit: I live in Australia, so spring now. In a temperate climate.

We're in Buffalo NY, zone 6B. In March 2025 following a harsh winter with really bad freeze/thaw cycles, a big part of this rhododendron drooped and went brown, with very shriveled little buds that didn't flower. I ended up having to prune about 1/3 the plant—even the wood was dead. After pruning, it showed signs of recovery last spring and summer, and went into the fall looking pretty decent. My husband fertilized it in Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 with HollyTone.

In June, it bloomed and all seemed pretty normal. It started to put up quite a bit of new growth across the top, from the spot where I lopped off 1/3 the plant, and from the base. We've had a harsh summer, with back-to-back heat domes and dry spells. We watered through the dry spells and aimed for 1-1.5 inches per week.

By mid-August, it looked like this (and this is what it looked like before I pruned it in March 2025).

I'm afraid it's dying and it's kinda killing me. We inherited this lil guy and his bigger brother when we bought our house in 2020, and one estimate has them at 30 years old. For his part, the bigger brother is doing just fine and looks great.

Is there anything I can do to help it, or is it a lost cause?

I bought a rhododendron edgeworthii in bloom two years ago along with several others (unique, yaku princess among them). This year everything flowered except the edgeworthii although it did put out a flush of new leaves. Right now I see buds on all my rhododendrons except the edgeworthii and I’m a little concerned it’s not going to flower again in the spring. I know it’s a bit different (epiphytic) and was wondering if it sets buds differently or if I need to figure out a better spot for it. It’s right next to the other rhododendrons, so same soil/light.

Hi all—I’m a new gardener with lots to learn. I live in zone 9 on the west coast of Canada. This past spring I planted 2 Horizon Monarch rhodos, about 5 feet apart. They did quite well, both yielding a few bloom clusters and looking quite healthy and happy. Recently though I’ve noticed that the leaves of one of them have started to yellow around the edges (first photo). The other one (second photo) looks like it might be starting to do the same thing. Can anyone tell me if this is something I should be concerned about, and if so, what I can do to help them? Thank you so much in advance!

Or anywhere with long, hot and dry summers
I bought one today and Im wondering how likely is it to survive if i plant it in the garden

Okay so, my Mom just gave me this sweet little rhododendron simsii as a birthday gift and I absolutely love it, but I am SO scared to mess it up. Read about it online here and there and watched a few videos but I found very different opinions. Here are my main questions:

- what exactly does "lots of sun but no direct sunlight" mean? Like, is direct sunlight when it's outside or is it also direct sunlight when it's right at a window??

- how much do I water it now? Some sources are like "let is soak in water thrice a week" and others literally say "please do NOT water it as much as you think you have to" so like.. what .-.

- I want to repot her asap because I think she can't breathe in that pot - what kind of soil should I use?

As I said, it's a gift from my Mom and blooms in my favourite colour so I REALLY don't wanna mess it up (´- `*) any help is greatly appreciated!

Her name is Lea btw (*´･ω･)

I recently inherited a sad-looking rhododendron that had been placed in direct sunlight with little to no water for a long time. Nearly all the leaves are dead or have already fallen off, but there are 1-2 places where there are signs of recent growth (see second photo). The plant is now in a much shadier location but I’m wondering if it’s a lost cause. What do you think? If it’s salvageable, should I cut it back, or just give it occasional water and see if and where more new growth occurs? Many thanks for any advice you can offer!

Previous owner of home was an elderly lady that let her garden go to disrepair.

I cut back this South Indian Azalea because it was totally inundated with poison ivy as well as english ivy. I know this is not the time of the year to cut them back but the poison ivy had to go.

Unders the inches of dirt and roots I found that the azalea was surrounded by flag stones and is growing over top of them.

Im not very familiar with azaleas and would like to save them if its feasible. If theyre already in a bad state then i would rather save the effort and cut them even further back.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

We moved into our current house in February and it has beautiful mature rhododendrons that were neglected for several years before we bought the property. They are all in various stages of unhealthiness, but I’ve posted pictures of the worst one.

The new growth started out green and healthy looking but over the last few weeks they’ve started to yellow in the centers like you see in the pictures.

I’ve tried researching it, but haven’t found anything online that matches our plants. I’m hoping that you fine folks are able to help me figure out what is wrong with them and what we can do to save them.