Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Specific Families and Genera => Rhododendron and other Ericaceae => Topic started by: Palustris on May 10, 2022, 11:40:58 AM
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Do Rhododendrons re grow from brown wood? IE. If I cut back ours to a foot from the ground where there are leafless stems will they regrow from those stems?
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In principle, yes. However in my limited experience some are less eager than others.
Therefore for a valuable plant it's worth taking a cautious approach, by pruning part of the plant to test response before completing the job next season or thereafter.
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Too late I have cut the Cunnungham's White to the roots. In 60 years of gardening I have never seen as many insects on one plant before. Scale insects off the scale.
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R. ponticum takes some killing as witnessed on Nature Reserves where it has become invasive. I can,t speak for others. It re-grows after being cut down to ground level.
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Too late ...
:o ;D This (https://glendoick.com/Pruning-Rhododendrons) might still be worth taking a look at.
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Success for regrowth after cuting back into old wood varies a lot for Rhodos - as Ashley says, it's best to test a part first, to see if there is a sign that dormant buds are willing to break into growth, before getting chop happy, especially on a precious plant.
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They have flowered very sparsely since we moved here and were covered in sooty mould and as I said more scale insects than I have ever seen, so even if they do not reshoot they are no great loss. It does give me 4 sq metres more to plant up though.
Thanks for the help.
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The most impressive regrowth I have seen -
A huge rhododendron growing close to a road was broken off by a truck. Only a piece of trunk remained. It re-grew.