Encourage rhododendrons to come back bigger and better year after year with this simple gardening task done after flowering
Macro closeup of many pink rhododendron flowers showing closeup of texture with green leaves in garden park(Image: Getty Images)
Rhododendrons are a great plant to spruce up your garden, offering bold colour and a gorgeous flower display when in bloom. If you grow them, you’re guaranteed to have a good show of flowers come the summer time.
However, if you want to ensure that they grow back year after year with the same amazing display, there’s a handy job everyone should be doing. Gardening expert and TikTok creator Ish recently revealed that directly after flowering is the best time to give some TLC to your rhododendrons.
Ish said: “If your rhododendron has started flowering, that’s incredibly exciting, but directly after its flowering is quite an important job. Now, rhododendrons, or rhoddy dendies, as I call them, have these absolutely gorgeous spring flowers.
You want to trim just above the healthy buds, giving it a light prune(Image: Getty Images)
“I mean, there are an absolute abundance of them, as well.”
To give them the best chance of growing back next spring, Ish recommended this very common gardening task to help them thrive. Not long after flowering, you want to give the rhododendrons a decent prune.
When the flowers begin to fade away, you want to give them a light prune. You don’t want to prune too much.
To help identify how much you need to trim away, Ish advised to look at the stem of the plant and look for healthy buds growing. Once you’ve identified where the healthy buds are growing, you want to trim the stem just above them.
Content cannot be displayed without consent
Avoid the temptation to prune down in the woody part of the stems, as you run the risk of the flowers not growing back at all next year. Ish said: “If you’re wondering why you should do this directly after flowering, well, the answer is: rhododendrons start their flowering process from summer, all the way through until next year.
“So if you cut this at the end of summer, chances are you’re cutting off all the buds that are ready to go in spring next year. So you want to make sure you preserve those.
“Get it done early, and as a result, it’ll develop new growth and even more flowers, just like this one. So if you want beautiful flowers every year for your rhododendron, now you know what you’re doing.”
The Royal Horticultural Society explained that generally rhododendrons don’t require much pruning other than the removal of dead wood and deadheading of spent flowers if practical. When it comes to late winter, the experts at Gardeners’ World advised to remove any dead or damaged wood while the plant is dormant.
Comments are closed.