Awareness of a Rhododendron Disease

Hi, All,

I wanted to pass this on to everyone. It came in my Home Depot Gardening Newsletter I get every week.
Gita

Regional Reports

October 26, 2006
Mid-Atlantic
by Charlotte Kidd, Radnor, PA

Be Alert to Diseased Rhododendron
If you live in southeastern Pennsylvania and purchased the rhododendron variety known or labeled as 'Joe Paterno' this year, it's important that you contact the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's regional office in Creamery, Montgomery County, at (610) 489-1003. A rhodie with the disease called "sudden oak decline" (Phytophthora ramorum) was reportedly found in September in a Delaware County nursery. Sudden oak decline is a potentially serious disease for a variety of plants including lilac, mountain laurel, pieris, camellia, and viburnum. Until recently, sudden oak decline was confined to the west coast. Pennsylvania officials hope to limit its escape in the environment by asking consumers to report purchases of this potentially diseased rhododendron cultivar.

This is potentially a problem of tragic proportions. I guess it was going to happen sooner or later.

On the lighter side, why'd it have to be a cultivar named after Joe Pa? He's got enough problems

I guess I'll add Phytophthera is not just a Rhododendron disease, California has lost more than a million Oaks from S.O.D., or Sudden Oak Death as it is more commonly called.

Thanks Gat, I also looked up more info to Identify SOD this might be helpful also.

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/pest_al/sodeast/sodeast.htm

I read about sudden oak death last year while researching what might be killing my neighbor's oak tree. We looked for the cankers but saw none. The symptoms matched oak decline, which has been known here since the early 1900s. The limbs die from the tips inward over a number of years with small clusters of leaves bunched together on the dying branches.

Here is an earlier picture of the tree, the branches that were completely dead were cut off last year. The tree showed no sign of improvement this year and the decision was made to take it down. This was done last week. Even though it was a shadow of its former self, the street feels very different without it.