{"id":1265,"date":"2012-03-02T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2012-03-02T17:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=1265"},"modified":"2012-03-01T20:56:06","modified_gmt":"2012-03-02T01:56:06","slug":"the-right-rhododendron-for-the-right-location","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2012\/03\/02\/the-right-rhododendron-for-the-right-location\/","title":{"rendered":"The Right Rhododendron for the Right Location"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1267\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_0596.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1267\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1267\" title=\"DSC_0596\" src=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_0596-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_0596-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/DSC_0596-1024x687.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1267\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rhododendron &#39;Chinoides&#39;<\/p><\/div>\n<div>Rhododendrons (<em>Rhododendron catawbiense<\/em>) were born in the cool of the North Carolina and Tennessee mountains. Hundreds of\u00a0 lovely hybrids have been bred by dedicated plantsmen. Winter hardiness is\u00a0rarely an issue, but rhododendrons are challenged by summer heat and disease problems in the Southern Appalachian region (USDA hardiness zones 6 and 7).\u00a0<\/div>\n<p>Your most important\u00a0decision is pedigree. So many varieties to try,\u00a0and the \u201cH-1 ironclad\u201dcultivar class is a good starting point. Here are five: rose pink (cv. \u2018English Roseum\u2019), lavender pink (cv. \u2018Roseum Elegans\u2019), light pink (cv. \u2018Janet Blair\u2019), white (cv. \u2018Chionoides\u2019) and dark purple lavender (cv. \u2018Lee\u2019s Dark Purple\u2019).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Success with rhododendrons follows three planting rules: sunlight exposure, soil amending, and watering needs.\u00a0The cultivar\u00a0must be heat and drought tolerant in summer and pleased with its soil conditions year-round. Direct morning sunlight and mostly afternoon shade\u00a0are winning combinations year-round. The northeast or southeast corner of a home, garage or large tree serves as an ideal planting site.<\/p>\n<p>The soil must be well-drained, acidic and high in humus. At planting time amend the soil, adding lots of organic matter such as peat moss and compost. Organic amendments tend to lower the soil pH, preferably to 5.5 or lower. After planting fertilize rhododendron(s) bimonthly with an acidic fertilizer such as Miracle Gro\u2122, Miracid\u2122 or an equivalent. Do not feed after mid- August.<\/p>\n<p>Any hint of poor soil drainage generally results in root disease problems like phytophthora and pythium. These fungal pathogens\u00a0thrive in poorly drained soils. The pesticide\u00a0treatment costs\u00a0to attempt to\u00a0save a pathogen infected rhododendron is high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rhododendrons (Rhododendron catawbiense) were born in the cool of the North Carolina and Tennessee mountains. Hundreds of\u00a0 lovely hybrids have been bred by dedicated plantsmen. Winter hardiness is\u00a0rarely an issue, but rhododendrons are challenged by summer heat and disease problems in the Southern Appalachian region (USDA hardiness zones 6 and 7).\u00a0 Your most important\u00a0decision is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,357,605,650,645,665,602,202,712,159,630,705,646,7,113,455,162],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1265"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3024,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions\/3024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}