Near the end of June, I wrote about getting rhododendrons pruned before it gets too hot. My experience has been that if you prune them in July, they sometimes sort of look droopy or wilted.
Later, I found a recommendation that you get rhododendrons pruned by July Fourth. That gave me a few more days.
Then, I saw another recommendation to finish your pruning by mid-July.
That’s coming up soon.
I’m finished, mostly. I saw a couple that I’d missed – when you have 40 rhododendrons to prune and eight azaleas that need pruning, they’re hard to keep track of.
This is the area of the yard I call The Forest. The rhododendrons don’t grow as much here due to the shade. However, there were several in this area that needed to have their thick and sometimes tangled branches trimmed. We’ve been using the method: prune off the dead rhododendron blossoms, shape the bush, reduce the height, and occasionally cut off a leader. For some plants, that means the branches get thick inside the bush.
I also trim the plants away from the house and fence, and I make a space between rhododendrons so I can walk around easily to take care of them.
My helper who spreads mulch asked that I trim the lower branches of the rhododendrons off so it’s easier to put the mulch under the plants. That added to pruning time.
The problem in front of the house is the plants get too tall and block the view from the windows. They need to be cut back every year.
The side yard on the west side of my house is hot. These plants grow a lot because there’s so much sun. The last few years, we’ve been putting a shade for them.
I have 11 rhododendrons across the back of my yard. A friend came over and pruned the tops of them so I didn’t need to climb a ladder to prune them. They’re growing more, too, since the landlord of the duplexes behind me decided to cut down three large alder trees. He said they were dying. However, just some branches were dying, not the tree. When they cut the tree down, the stumps looked like the trunk was healthy.
In desperation, I trimmed the azaleas with a hedge trimmer. It worked pretty well. I noticed a lot of people use hedge trimmers on azaleas. While it looks O.K., more pruning is needed to thin the plant and cut out the dead branches.
That’s my rhododendron story. What’s yours?
