Rhododendron 'Catawbiense Grandiflorum'

I've raised the canopy of my largest Rhododendron up near the house. The bottom branches were dragging along the floor, and felt I needed to open it up a bit and let air flow through. Removed all the lower branches, damaged ones, and dead ones - looks much better now. Deadheaded all this years flowers too 👍🏼

Great fan of raising the crown on shrubs Richard can make such a difference .. this looks like a fine Rhodo now 😍

I love the look of this! Very neat ❤️😊

Looking good!

Looks very nice!

Ooh thank u, I will do that to mine as it's overcrowded and looks awful. I thought of taking it out.. @richard.spicer.7906

Thanks Sam, I'd been meaning to do it for the last few years but never got round to it until now 👍🏼 @icedance

Definitely worth a go Christine 😀 @brighton - if it doesn't improve at least you tried before taking it out 👍🏼

It looks great Richard 👍did this to my twisted Hazel and the added bonus is room to underplant 🙂

It's that time when the Rhododendron Leafhopper starts to show its face. Found a few of these hopping mad all over my plant this weekend. These sap sucking insects can lay there eggs in developing flower buds, which can then become vulnerable to bud blast, a fungus. Any buds starting to turn brown should be picked off to stop the spread of the infection.

Seen a couple of these in the garden this week, must check plants tomorrow 🙏🏻thanks for the warning richard 👍🏻

Great tip Rich 👍

#bugs

@rusty - rhododendron flowers - lots of little ones grouped together as one big flower.

There are not many rhododendrons tagged yet in Gardentags, but they soon will be as they flower around end of April and through May. There is a small few on this hashtag #rhododendron , but watch this space for lots more over the coming weeks 😁👍🏼

This almost doesn't look real. Do you have a macro lens?

@thedanielrichards it's real 😀. I use a Canon DLSR camera with normal lens.

#rhododendron

@rusty - here's a good one of rhododendron leave shapes , like clusters of finger like leaves all joining near a central point.