My poor rhododendron

My rhododendron suffered some significant damage in the latest snow/ice/cold snap. It was doing fine all winter, and now this. I am fearful that I lost a good many flower buds. Anyone else in the NE have the same problem?

ckk I am not far from you in Pepperell and noticed the same thing. The Rodies will come back as I've seen this happen to some huge plants in my neighborhood that looked like they were destroyed. We have probably lost some flower buds.

Yes, it looks just like mine, ckk.

I have a few spots on mine that look the same... funny thing is it's in on the sunny side of it.... but less protection on that side

Thanks, all. Onewish, your Rhodie is beautiful. To be honest, I have never had good luck with Rhododendrons in any place that I have lived, and I'm a pretty conscientious gardener. I was happy that this year - mine was finally looking great and had had some good growth and lots of bud development in the fall. I'm hoping for the best :-(

WOW...You know there has been significant climatic change if someone from New Hampshire has winter burn! Because I live in an area without the benefit of snow cover this is something I deal with each winter. Every winter as a standard gardening task I apply an anti desiccant (Wilt Pruf) to my broad-leaf evergreens twice, once the first week in December and then again any warm day in early March. This makes a huge difference for me. Plants in my landscape that typically get hard hit by winter burn are;
Ilex
rhododendron
leucothoe
magnolia
surprisingly Pieris doesn't seem to be effected by winter burn as much as other broad-leaf evergreens. I have found that the University of Minnesota has a great page on this. kt

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1411.html

kt, your link echoes what my extension agent told me - the anti-dessicants are a waste of money. They don't work. However, if it seems to work for you, I wouldn't knock success.

It was such a bad year up here that even Wilt-Pruf didn't help. It is interesting to see plants that are side by side have different responses, though. In those situations, the cultivars are different from each other and I think that that explains it.

my rhodies look just like yours

I have 2 very small ones. And they both look like that.
Does this mean that the branches are dead? I guessing that is by June they haven't bounce back, I can prune them.

Lora, I don't know whether the branches are dead. I'm going to treat the shrub like it's under stress and make sure that it's adequately watered and mulched, and then do a wait-and-see. I'm going to trim off the dead leaves and see if there's any new growth on those branches. If the branch looks dead to the ground by fall, I guess I'll prune it back. If someone else has good suggestion, please let me know!

You might try an application of an organic fertilizer that has a good shot of nitrogen in it to spur a little extra new growth. Things like blood meal and guano fit into this category.

Nitrogen is available to the plants very quickly w/ those two. For a little longer push, and cotton seed meal to the mix.

I just went out to take a look at mine. :(
Last year we had to ton of beautiful blooms hope to see some this year! Seems like most of us are in the same boat.

My magnolia seems fine, even though it's only about 15 feet from the Rhodie. Hope to have blooms opening soon.

many of my clients suffered severe rhodie loss although it was most pominent on the newest plantings. we have already drastic cutting back and complete removal/replacement. if in two or so weeks there is no change i would prune it back rather than waiting and stimulate the new growth.

I live right next door in Hudson, NH and I've noticed a ton of winter burned rhodies all around here. It does seem like the newer plantings are the most effected but lots of big ones too. I think if the plants are planted in a southern exposure they were hit the hardest. It's too bad because some look so bad they'll need to be replaced.

My understanding is: Their pores opened up wide in the warm Jan. weather, transpiration led to loss of water and a quick freeze made them unable to take in more water.
Wilt Pruf seemed to keep my rhodies from having any damage.

Dave, you've hit the nail on the head. I went to my local gardening center where the staff is knowledgable (Meredith, it's Morin's - really good folks) and one of the guys there said the same thing. About half of my rhodie is gone. I may have to replace it, we'll see. I'm currently working on getting rid of my decimated yews and arborvitae - I'm tired of fighting the deer. Thank goodness they're not a large portion of my landscaping.

Ralph Snodsmith is the host of the Garden Hotline, WOR Radio, Sunday mornings from 8 to 10. He has 4,200 Rhodies so a call to him (start calling at 7:45) might provide some information. I think the number is 1-800-321-8828 but please verify online at the Gardenhotline.com

Edited to add: I tried but couldn't spot his phone number on his site. Here's a link to his #1 question about gardening - the effects of the warm and then freezing temperatures had on plants:
http://www.gardenhotline.com/faq.htm

This message was edited Apr 22, 2007 7:01 AM

mine are actually starting to look better. I think they may be coming out of shock.

Good spring feeding was the recommendation on the Garden Hotline. The pros both agreed that the winter damage is mostly an aesthetic one.

I had a old rhodo already stressed last year. This winter did it in. Just cut it down today. No big deal - will be replaced by one or two J. maples. The three rhodos I have out front however, were just damaged this winter. So pirl, aside from feeding, what to do with the browned foliage? Prune it off or wait? Dave, my extension agent told me long ago that Wilt-Pruf doesn't do much but if it works for you, it works for you, right? I've never tried it. The explanation makes good sense. Sounds like I should have watered during that warm Dec-Jan period. Next time.

Yes, wait it out was the advice. If the leaves are dead they'll fall but they both said not to cut back because buds may be on those branches. I'd guess when the rest of the plant goes into bloom you could cut back whatever looks terrible.

If it's totally dead, prune it, otherwise wait for possible bloom, as Pirl said. Compost tea or other liquid fertilizer (for a quick boost) applied now will help it get back on its feet.
Victor, my expert recommends wilt proof. Go figure. But my rhodies have no wilt.The theory is: Thin leafed (needle) evergreens don't have this problem because of less surface area and they have pine sap in them for protection. Wilt proof is basically applying pine sap.

As I mentioned above I apply Wilt Pruf as a standard gardening chore. Believe me I would much rather spend my time and money (I think it is very expensive) on other things but I live in one of the highest measured wind areas in New England and after many years of consistent evergreen loss due to winter burn I started using antidessicants and the difference has been remarkable. To me the most outstanding example in my yard was after a miscommunication and final resolve with my local nursery at the very late date of September 30th my new 15' Bracken Brown Beauty Magnolia arrived. I knew this large evergreen wasn't going to have much time for it's roots to do much to support it's massive top growth so I watered, and applied Wilt Pruf (with a ladder) and crossed my fingers. I have to say that yes it did sustain some burn damage but not nearly as much as others in my community and I can't imagine it would have survived with out Wilt Pruf. kt

my rhodies do indeed have buds that are beginning to show color. so I will as suggested, give them a little boost and see how they do.

the problem w.wilt proof is that it needs to be reapplied in jan to be truely effective, and good luck finding a day warm enough to apply it correctly!

We had plenty this past January!

I apply the first week in December and then reapply any warm day in March. kt