GardenForums.com a friendly and growing community of gardeners.
We feature a
Garden Discussion Forum and
Garden Photo Gallery. It's a fun and friendly place to talk with other gardeners, ask questions, share you knowledge, view and post photos and more! Whether you're a master gardener, or brand new to the hobby, you'll find something of interest here.
It seems the leaves on one of my rhododendrons are kinda drooping. there are no yellow or brown leaves, they are still very green and making next years buds. the 1st 2 pictures are of the one in question. the 3rd is the other plant but the leaves are turned upward some or straight. both plants were planted last of april this yr., the soil had compost and peat moss in the hole when planted. this is all of a sudden within the last 3 days. can anyone help or any suggestions please?
I don't live where I can grow rhody's, so I can't be of any help but there are people here that will be able to help.
They are a pretty smart crew.
Super Moderator
Staff member
My first thought would be water. Check the ground and see if it's pretty dry.
Super Moderator
Staff member
Curled leaves is usually a sure sign of lack of soil moisture!
Rhodies are shallow rooted and require a good amount of watering.
Since they are shallow rooted, you do not want the disturb the soil; therefore, you will need to mulch the soil! I use shredded cedar bark to help keep the soil cool and helps retain soil moisture! A layer of around 2 inches would do nicely. Add an inch each year as the mulch breaks down.
Other then the lack of soil moisture they look pretty good!
Super Moderator & vegemm
Staff member
well i have to agree...the first one looks in need of water...I have several roddies here and they do like alot of water...I also feed mine with wood ash
thank you everyone! the plant look really good until 3 days ago. I'm thinking I did something wrong. A friend told me that peat moss was a good mulch for these kind of plants, so last week thats what I did. Then later I read where peat used as a mulch would not let water through to the roots. Dont know how true all this is but this evening I took all the peat up and got some pine chip mulch and put down about 2-3 inches and watered deep. we'll see what happensin the next couple of days. I'll let you all know of the outcome. I sure hate to lose the plant since it has done well since april. thanks again everyone
Super Moderator
Staff member
Errol,
Good luck but my first guess was water also. Bet you fixed the problem
Super Moderator
Staff member
Ahhh!
Peat moss does exactly like you said, and is not a very good mulch!
Lucky you caught the problem when you did, and corrected the mistake!
The rhodie should perk up now!
Gardenforums.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com