Advice Centre

How to plant a Rhododendron

Site selection: Most rhododendrons will take sun or shade, but semi shade is best. Select a position with moist acidic soil (pH 3.0-6.0), and avoid planting close to large trees, hedges and shrubs which...

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Rhododendrons for Hedging and Screening

Recent research has proved that rhododendrons make one of the best sound barriers. Their dense, pendulous, evergreen leaves reflect noise pollution away. Few other species are as effective, and none can...

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Rhododendrons on Limey Soils

Rhododendrons are acid loving plants, and require a pH of between 4.0 and 6.0 to grow. For those on neutral or even slightly limey soils, improvements can be made to the soil, and there are varieties of...

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Pests and Diseases

BUDBLAST If your Rhododendron isn't flowering and you can see some black buds, this could be either frost or budblast. If the problem is frost, the buds will be black and whilst a little unsightly it...

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Deadheading and Pruning

DEAD HEADING Dead heading is the process of snapping off the spent flower truss after flowering. It really does make a difference, and gives the plant that well groomed look for the rest of the season....

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Feeding and mulching

FEEDING: Just like us, Rhododendrons do need plenty of water and food! So many people forget to fertilize their plants and this is particularly important in the first years whilst they are getting themselves...

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Soil Preparation and Growing Conditions

Rhododendrons are usually trouble free in growing, provided care is taken in the initial planting. Their main requirements are a lime free soil, plenty of water and some shelter from scorching sun and...

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Rhododendron and Azalea Groups

The question we get asked the most is “what is the difference between a Rhododendron and an Azalea?” Here we will try to enlighten you to the different Rhododendron and Azalea Groups as well as answering...

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Rhododendron Breeders

Click here to find information about breeders. We are working on this area, so more breeders will be added soon!

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RHS Hardiness Ratings

The RHS have their own system of H (Hardiness) ratings that are universally used throughout the UK to indicate hardiness. To assist you with your selection we show these ratings and also indicate the lowest...

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Plant Awards

Although there are other Awards we consider the most helpful one to be The Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (AGM) which helps gardeners make informed choices about plants. You can spot...

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Planting in Containers

Rhododendrons and Azaleas can be grown very successfully in containers providing you are prepared to maintain them properly. In some locations it may be the only way to grow these beautiful plants. We...

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How we propagate our plants

We use different methods of propagation such as seed, cuttings, grafts and micro-propagation. Seed Many of our Species Rhododendrons are sown from wild collected seed. Where this is the case you may see...

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Plantsman and Easy to Grow range

Easy to grow: To help our customers with selection, we have identified those plants that are easy to grow and would be ideal for all gardeners and most garden situations. We appreciate that our range...

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Plant Problems

POOR FLOWERING: This can be a number of reasons such as a young plant, dry conditions, poor feeding or too much shade. All plants can take a year to settle into a new garden, but some of our choice varieties...

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