New Rhododendron "Hellikki"

[canadianplant]

Large leaves, apperantly evergreen, all the info I can find ( which isnt too much concidering) says hardy to the low end of zone 4. The Flower spikes are pretty baddass too. My first "real" Rhododendron ( My azalea isnt quite the same IMO, and I think it didnt make it, the stems are green, but nothin happening yet. IF its dead, this is a good replacement).

They were literaly just taken off the truck when I got there, and were pretty water stressed. I took it home and soaked it with 3 pitchers of water ( the soil is amazingly fast draining, faster then my cactus soil), and it looks like the pics below, just a few minutes ago.

The plan is to buy a fat brick of peat, and amend the soil a bit, and make a slightly raised mound for it, and mix in the native soil. My soil just isnt acid, and i refuse to add chemicals to it to make it acidic, not to mention, a little bit of peat added in to the soil for lots of plants is good in general.

Any suggestions, comments are welcomed as always.

[Paul Ont]

Good. Don't add chemicals. Add sulphur, a naturally occurring mineral, to the soil instead. It will help buffer the alkalinity!

Here's the mix I use:
Add a handful of sulphur to the hole (which should be about 4 x larger then the plants roots)
Mix 50:50 Compost/manure:Cedar/pine mulch. To this add a lot of peat moss (ideally it will be chunky peat, but that stuff is rare and expensive). Fill the hole with this mix.
Box-store Rhodies are universally pot-bound. Take the plant out of the pot and literally RIP the roots apart. You might be able to do this with your hands, but you also might need a knife. Don't worry about destroying the roots, it's better that they have the chance to move and recover than to leave them as a mass. Far more rhodies die from improper planting than anything else...

Good news though, Hellikki is about the hardiest available Rhodie hybrid... It's R. smirnowii open pollinated... Supposed to flower after -32C. I've personally seen a very nice one planted in North Bay, ON, probably USDA zone 3a! There are only a handful of other plants, none widely available, that will flower well after exposure to temps that low. Personally I don't care about flowers, but they are a nice addition.

Lastly, are you sure your soil isn't acidic? I thought you'd be on granite as opposed to the limestone that we have (a lot of places) down here. In Muskoka, which is on granite, the soil is good enough to stick Rhodies right in the ground!

[canadianplant]

Thanks paul

Im always reluctant to cut roots on plants ( I just planted a russian plive without pruning its roots, but if anything will be ok without cutting the roots, its a russian olive!). But, rhodies arent my forte , and definetly yours ( you said you specialize in rhodies correct?), so ill have to take your advice on that for sure. The only thing is its flowering like mad. Cutting the roots might stop some of the flowering no? ( Im not big on the flowers either, but their necassary in a garden ecosystem IMO, and then again, generaly rhodies are bought for their flowers id say).

Thats great to know that one survives in north bay! Id say my exact area is warmer then north bay ( im less then a mile from the lake, so it has that moderating effect on temps), but the city on average is about the same. They can take a bit more sun this far north eh? My azalea is in full sun, and right now it hansnt leafed back out ( Its an exubury hybrid "Lollipop", so it looses its leaves). I sacrificed the tip of a branch to see if the wood is soft, and it is, and green, but i expected to see something by now, concidering their an "early" flowering plant.

That leads me to the acidity question. My azaleas leaves had the notorious yellowing of the leaves, which from what ive gathers is usualy (not always of course), acidity problems. I negated anything else, because no other plants around it had any problems. Also, my exact area of the city was lake bottom untill a few hundred years ago, so its a sandy clay soil, that was more of a floodplain/grassland. A few km in town ( or north to port aurther), is where the real granite starts, and the pines, and the muskeg., Also the acidic soil id presume, concidering Labrador tea, rasberries, blue berries and service.saskatoon berries grow wild here. My grandmas house isnt far from me, and she has hydrangea ( every third house or so has one or more) and none of them are blue, just that pink or cream/off white colour. So IMO peat ( I bought a brick today), is needed. Ill have to dig way down into my compost pile, but ill get some..


THanks for the input

[canadianplant]

Sorry I have to add a bit ( I dont like the "limit" on the text boxes LOL).

I know a tiny bit about the geology here. ITs quite different from down in your area. Im going to simplify it, to spare me some typing. Lake supirior was a rift in the earth crust. Lake nipigon is a failed rift, and a piece of this can be seen at "ouimet canyon" ( has one of canadas longest supention bridges btw). Theres flat top "mesas" that litteraly surround the main city, that are shale, and are almsot a billion years old. They were once the size of the himalayas.

The geology, is some what similar to around the rift lakes in africa ( i know thats super vague, the canadian sheild is different geology then africa but ya know), where the geology is almost volcanic. Thunder bay has one of the only three open pit agate mines in the world, as well as oil ( under miles of shale), gold, quartz, amathyst, and many other minerals in the area due to the volcanic activity.

Because of the glaciers, the area is covered in millions of lakes, which makes the area swampy, except in the flat area the south of the city is in. ITs actualy flat , much lower then the surrounding area, and is as flat as regina ( untill you get away from the lake no more then 15 minutes west). The north of the city, is extremly hilly, and has exposed granite eveywhere. Theres a good hundred foot elevation change from my house, straight down the main street east, 5 minutes ( drive) away. Its sort of liek calgary, on a much much smaller scale ( if youve been there youd understand).