It is worth paying attention to the rhododendron because not all gardeners know how to properly grow it on the site. This is a rather complicated process with a lot of tricks. If you decide to acquire this ornamental plant, then the first thing you need to understand is that the rhododendron is a very capricious plant. Quite often it freezes in winter. However, if you take care of it properly, taking into account the characteristics of the plant, then this perennial will not cause big problems.
Content
Choosing planting material
Before proceeding to planting a rhododendron, it will not hurt for novice growers to find out what this plant has bred several winter-hardy species... If you rely on the experience of gardeners, then it is best to grow the following varieties on the site:
- deciduous schlippenbach;
- Japanese rhododendron;
- katevbin.
Thus, if you want to get high-quality planting material, then you need to be especially careful at the place of purchase. It is best to contact specialized nurseries, where they will not only be able to offer you the desired variety of rhododendron, but also give recommendations for caring for it.
Don't be tempted by the opportunity to purchase this plant from the spontaneous market. Many of the local sellers often cannot tell exactly what they are selling. And even if the purchased seedling can bloom in summer and decorate your garden, it most likely will not survive the winter and you will have to look for planting material again.
Landing
Given the difficult climatic conditions of our country, it is best to plant bushes in any autumn month... If you have planned this event for the spring, then it is advisable to plant the rhododendron in April and May. This recommendation is not given by chance, since it is at this time of the year that flower development comes to an end, and young plants have time to get stronger.
Experienced florists can afford not to follow this rule and plant at any time. The main thing is that a lot of time has passed between the chosen moment of planting and the phase of flowering and budding. Indeed, during this period, the plant has to expend a lot of energy, especially when it comes to building up green mass.
Soil preparation
To plant a rhododendron, you need to choose a suitable place, which should be protected from winds and direct sunlight... The land must be watered, and the root system of the plant must also be moistened.
All novice growers should understand that transportation will not become a serious test for the plant if it is thoroughly watered with warm water first.
If the moisture in the ground was not enough and the lump dried out, then before planting the bush, you need to do the following: it must be left in water for a couple of hours so that it receives the required amount of moisture.
To plant a rhododendron, you will have to prepare a planting pit: it should be 2 times the depth and width of the root ball. First they pour there specially prepared mixture, for which the following components are used taken in equal amounts:
- heather land;
- sphagnum peat;
- deciduous soil;
- rotted manure;
- humus;
- pine needles.
This mixture is used in the amount of 1/3 of the volume of the hole, the rest of the space is filled with earth, which was formed during digging the hole. You can prepare a pit for a rhododendron not only just before planting, but also during the off-season, which falls on spring and autumn.
Planting recommendations
In order for the planting of a rhododendron in the Urals to take place without complications, it is necessary during its implementation follow certain recommendations.
having transferred the plant to the planting hole, it must be placed strictly vertically. The space around the root system must be filled with the remaining substrate and tamped to avoid voids in the soil;- in addition, you need to take care of creating high-quality drainage, thanks to which the problem of removing excess moisture from the rhizome and providing it with oxygen will be effectively solved;
- during planting, the soil in the root zone must be mulched with a layer of 5 cm. This operation is completed with abundant watering - moisture must penetrate to a depth of 20 cm. Leaves, needles or peat can be used as material for mulching. It is important to follow the exact procedure: first lay the mulch, and only then carry out abundant watering;
- sometimes rhododendron has to be planted during the flowering period. In this case, you first need to cut off part of its buds. If the planting pits are located at a sufficiently large distance from each other, then pegs must be driven into the ground so that strong winds do not pull out weakly rooted plants. When the time required for rooting has passed, the supports are removed.
Care
Having finished planting the rhododendron in open ground, they begin to carry out activities within the framework of plant care. The main ones are spraying, feeding and forming a bush... A very useful operation is weeding the soil in the root zone to help protect the plant from weeds.
In general, a rhododendron does not need special care if all the rules were followed during planting, and in the end the root zone was mulched. Such an operation, which is obligatory for most plants, such as loosening the soil, is not recommended for rhododendron. Moreover, it can harm it as it can damage the root system.
Watering
It is quite simple to care for a rhododendron during watering. It is especially necessary to spray the plants regularly in the first year after transplanting, since they need to create favorable conditions for rooting. The plant experiences the greatest need for moisture on hot days. A hint that the plant does not have enough moisture can be given by the flower itself: during such periods, turgor disappears, and leaves become matte... Spraying the leaves has little effect on maintaining the optimal moisture level, so this procedure can be carried out relatively rarely.
If in the first year of life after planting the plant receives less moisture, then it begins to react very sensitively. At the same time, excessive soil moisture is not beneficial to the plant, since this makes it impossible for the roots to receive the required amount of oxygen. This can be determined by how the leaves of the bush begin to fall off and turn yellow. An operational measure for stagnant moisture is loosening the soil to a shallow depth. After it, you need to wait a while so that the soil can dry well.
In order for the rhododendron to feel good after planting, it is necessary to decide with the correct irrigation regime... It is largely determined by the rigidity of the soil on which the flower grows, as well as weather conditions.
Watering is necessary only with acidified and soft water. During the active growing season, watering should be increased.If the plant has received enough moisture during the summer season, then it will have a better chance of tolerating winter drought well.
Mulching
Many of the available materials can be used to protect the surface layer of the soil from increased evaporation of moisture, with the exception of chestnut leaves. The fact is that during decomposition, they increase the alkalinity of the soil, and this greatly harms rhododendrons, which need acidic soil. You also need to correctly determine the thickness of the mulch layer, and for this they are guided by the size of the plants.
With a flower height of up to 50 cm, you can limit yourself to mulch with a layer of 4-6 cm.For higher specimens, the mulch layer is increased to 10-15 cm.If tall plants up to 2 meters are grown, then the mulch should be laid on the surface of the soil with a layer of 30 cm.With the onset of spring it is completely removed.
Pruning
Taking proper care of your rhododendron requires regular pruning. These plants initially have the correct shape. Therefore, measures have to be taken only with respect to young plants - for this they pinch a place next to the central bud, which will help to form the correct crown. Full pruning is carried out only if the plant has a very large crown.
It is necessary to remove branches with a diameter of 24 cm. At the end of the operation, the sections must be processed with the available materials at hand. You can use oil paint, and in the absence of it, garden var, which will help to avoid infection of the plant.
Top dressing
Already in the first year of life after planting, fertilizers have to be applied to the soil. Given the young age of the bush, feeding is carried out in small portions in liquid form. There is a group of signs by which you can determine that a plant needs fertilization:
- lightening foliage;
- decrease in the growth of shoots;
- fading gloss;
- falling foliage;
- lack of buds.
Most often, feeding is carried out with semi-rotted manure.
Before applying organic fertilizers to the soil, let it stand for several days to activate microbiological processes... Gardeners most often use superphosphate as mineral fertilizers.
You can start feeding only after good watering, which will help protect the root system from burns.
Experienced gardeners often resort to the following types of fertilizers to give the necessary acidity to the soil:
- potassium nitrate or sulphate;
- ammonium sulfate;
- superphosphate;
- magnesium sulfate.
For the first time, feeding is carried out in early spring, and they are completed before the beginning of August.
Wintering
Among other measures for the care of garden rhododendrons, wintering is also important, on which the flowering of the plant depends on the next year. As a shelter, you can use roofing material or make another frame shelter. The greatest harm to rhododendrons is carried by strong winter winds and a thick layer of snow. To protect against these external factors, gardeners arrange special houses, using polyurethane foam or polypropylene for their manufacture.
You can determine the favorable moment when the shelter can be removed by the ambient temperature: it should warm up to + 10 degrees. at lower temperatures, it is worth postponing the removal of the plant from the shelter, as otherwise it may suffer.
Most often shelters are removed already in April, therefore, young leaves will be perfectly prepared for the first rays of the sun. During this period, the rhododendron comes out of dormancy, and therefore its need for moisture increases.
It is necessary to clean the shelter in cloudy weather. If this is done too late, then the plant may support it. Usually rhododendrons are sheltered for winter in mid-November. Usually, by this moment there are no warming up any more, and the air temperature starts to decrease day by day.
Conclusion
The rhododendron has many fans among gardeners. Therefore, many would like to know about the features of its cultivation in the open field. This question is especially relevant in view of the fact that in the conditions of the harsh Russian winter, which is not uncommon for the regions of the Siberian region, it is not so easy to grow it as a perennial plant. Every inhabitant of it knows that even in May there are frosts, so the summer is very short.
However, knowing the rules of agricultural techniques for planting and caring for this plant, you can enjoy the flowering of this beautiful plant in our latitudes every season. To do this, you need to pay close attention to the plant at every stage of its life and carry out appropriate activities, to which the flower will surely respond with colorful and bright flowering.
But we must not forget that not everything depends on leaving. When growing rhododendron in Siberia, it is very important to choose a frost-resistant variety so that it can endure the winter cold well and begin to bloom without delay in the spring. Then a caring gardener will be rewarded for all his efforts, which he will show during the cultivation of rhododendron.
