FERTILIZING - Fertilizing should be done in the spring with a good balanced acidic fertilizer. It is better to fertilize twice with half strength in April, and again in the first of June. Never fertilize after June 15th. Once a year you should use a hand full of some sulfur around the plant. Use agricultural palletized sulfur, like Tiger Sulfur (Tiger Brand). In the fall, you can use a little super phosphate. Never over fertilize your plants. It is not too hard to kill a plant with too much fertilizer. If your plants look healthy, you are doing a good job.

DEADHEADING - This is the pinching off or twisting off of the faded flower heads soon after blooming. By doing this, more energy to put into bud set for the following year. Be careful not to damage any new growth.

TRANSPLANTING RHODODENDRONS -
To successfully transplant rhododendrons and azaleas from a container into the garden, here are a few steps to follow. Dig the planting hole wider, but no deeper than the root system of your plant. If plant is in a container, pull the root ball out of the container, if on the dry side you should soak it for 10 minutes in a pail of water. Pry the root ball apart to loosen it. You may take a knife and score from the bottom to the top on all 4 sides. This will help for you to pull apart. We use a chunky peat and decomposed pine bark, so our root balls are fairly easy to pull apart. Some nurseries use other mixture like sawdust to plant in so some are quite difficult to pull apart as they are compacted. If you do not soak the root ball before you planting, sometimes the root ball stays very dry, even when the surrounding soil seems moist. Do not plant Rhododendrons deeper than the top of the soil in the pot. Otherwise you will kill it. Rhododendrons are very shallow rooted plants. Do not cultivate around the base of the plants either. Just mulch 2 or 3 inches around the plants.

LOCATION -Rhododendrons and Azaleas should be planted in a north or east exposure. This is to protect them from the south and west sun and prevailing winds, especially during the winter months. Small leaf rhododendrons (lepidote) and deciduous azaleas tend to be tolerant of more exposed planting sites.

The above drawing shows a plant in a simple raised bed (left side) or raised bed with
retaining wall (right side). A raised bed will prevent the problem of forming a bucket
with stagnant water in poorly drained soil as explained above.

When a rhododendron is newly planted, the roots have not yet had time to grow out into
the surrounding soilurrounding soil, and are only in the existing ball. If the ball gets dry,
water will not easily be re-absorbed into the ball from the adjoining moist soil. Since no
roots have had time to grow in the new soil, the ball can be dry even though it is sitting in
damp soil.

SOIL AND MULCH - Soil should be acidic with a PH level between 5 - 7. Preferably with some organic matter like coarse peat, decomposed pine bark or acidic leaf mold. If soils are a combination of hard and claylike matter, then the beds should be raised if you are planting Rhododendrons, azaleas and other ericaceous plants. The beds should be made up of garden loam, peat or decomposed pine bark and acidic leaf mold organic matter -acidic is the key. For mulch you can use pine bark and/or pine needles. Stay away from shallow rooted tree's like Norway maples and other shallow invasive rooted trees. Do not plant to close to the house or buildings with large overhangs (eves troughs) because they block the rainwater from reaching the roots.

MAINTENANCE - Water as needed to avoid letting the roots dry out. Keep a layer of mulch on surrounding area. Mulch helps to keep the weeds under control and keeps the moisture in the soil from drying out. Fertilize as needed. For more information, visit the American Rhododendron Society or our own Niagara Rhododendron Society's site .

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