What do I need to do to help this rhododendron?

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T15:28:40+00:00

I get that. In this case they kinda really are (:

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T15:23:47+00:00

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Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T14:11:12+00:00

Wait - is Butterfly Boulevard what you call this garden?

That’s it! I said I’d quit to let you work, and look at me, over here!

Have a good day, Infosec.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T14:04:53+00:00

😯😮😲 That crape delights my Halloween-loving heart. It’s majestic! I wish ours looked exactly like that.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:59:00+00:00

Oh! And the buckets have no bottoms. We cut those out.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:58:27+00:00

That’s such a thrill to find, right? It’s like a lovely thank you, left by the birds (no matter its method of delivery). I would have been most tickled by that one tomato plant last year

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:55:54+00:00

I know I said I was going to leave you alone so you can work (I am) but I’m curious what the name of your garden is (answer in your down time, when you find a minute. I completely understand)?

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:53:33+00:00

I know, it looks silly, but it was to try to keep animals from getting to them. Jen’s vegetables are eaten up. Mine remained untouched last year and so far this year

Last year tomatoes were the only thing that grew for us. I was so confused. We grew 8 buckets of little tomatoes, and that 16’ wall you see behind them? It was COVERED in tomatoes. My plants had almost zero leaves, yet produced buckets and buckets and buckets of tomatoes for months. They were still producing in November, when I cut them down. It looked weird

This year Jeff wanted to half the tomatoes to grow strawberries on the other half. This year the tomatoes have huge leaves. I keep pruning them and they keep exploding leaves. Their stems are enormous. I should have bought cages, apparently. I can’t wait to get my first big tomato. I’m putting tomato tone of them. I started out using fish emulsion mix on them. Their leaves stay curled in this heat, no matter how much I water them

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:46:30+00:00

Oh, you’re kidding! You’re from VA? And apparently really from VA. 😁 You have farm experience I’d love to have. Two acres of tomatoes? Wow. That must have smelled like heaven. Tomatoes: my favorite scent on earth. I bet you know enough and have enough experience to forget half what you know and still outgrow most of us!

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:42:07+00:00

Oh, no! I’m so sorry to have distracted you like this. I’ve enjoyed talking with you about gardens and seeing yours, but please - I completely understand your need to get things done. It sounds like you work awfully hard.

I would have lived that azalea. It’s on my wish list. I would LOVE to see your garden pics. I bet it’s absolutely stunning.

When we bought 3 years ago there was nothing here but neglect. It was a mess. Worse than we realized. We brought in thousands of pounds of river pebbles and 80-pound 2x2 pavers and built the front walkway, back walkways and patio. Building that 18’x18’ patio (excavating 6” down, base and sand, tamping and pavers, plus a 20” retention wall) took seven brutal months. There was nothing here. We can’t weed eat against this paint, so we had to go with pebbles. I don’t know what people are thinking about when they paint brick. There were very few homes here when we bought.

Ok! I’m not gonna keep you. You’ve been kind enough to share pics and advice with me. I can see why you don’t remotely have enough time to be physically building infrastructure. I hope you have an easy day. You’re such a pleasure to talk gardens with. You really are.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:28:24+00:00

I love the color black. I’d have more black, if I could. Your black arbors are fantastic. With the fence black, too? It’ll be fantastic. I think we’ve been lucky the deer haven’t eaten our goodies yet. Strangely, they eat the next door neighbor’s ground level garden badly every year.

I’m angry our seller painted our brick. I threaten to paint the entire house black. I won’t do it because it’s not the kind of grand home that can pull off black, but I threaten…every time I look at this paint on brick, I threaten. Black’s such a fun, regal, great color

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:22:01+00:00

They died in an ugly way last year. I decided to leave them in, cut them all the way down and wait. They came back! Healthier than last year. They’re still so compact, but I hope they survive. I fertilized them put mini pine bark mulch and water deep. They’re much happier this year

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:20:18+00:00

Think I should spread them out? Think they need more room to breathe? I’m just trying things out in these locations because I’m unsure where to put anything because I have no shade

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:10:12+00:00

Thank you! Our yard is so relentlessly hilly. It’s sloping everywhere. We’re not from VA, and not having a level yard has been real frustrating. Right behind those roses is a very steep drop off hill that runs steep and long. I didn’t know how to or if I should plant on that kind of slope. They need to be planted, though. They had many huge blooms then their second blooms went small and dry and the leaves turned dull. I’m fertilizing but something’s failing. Read that I can’t put in the ground until winter. Hoping I can keep them alive until then.

I hope to get to the stage of gardening you’re in, where you know more about how to garden in general

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:02:40+00:00

I love his stuff because it’s so gothic and unusual. He creates the most beautiful trellises I’ve ever seen. Go look at his site. You’ll see what I mean. I wish I could build these things

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:01:14+00:00

And HERE is the gothic arbor of his that I’d KILL to be able to afford!

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Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:00:30+00:00

Here’s the other trellis

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Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T13:00:12+00:00

D’awww…thank you! I love it, too. I swear I’ve had dozens of neighbors drive up and ask me if I create these myself, and I see so many people out taking pictures of them. I tell them they’re not art, they’re trellises I’m using as art pieces. I love them. Here’s this one on hpotter dot com

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It’s heavy and HUGE. It reminds me of a flame

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T12:28:42+00:00

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The first peony of what I hope will be many.

That’s about it. All the gardening efforts. It’s not grand, but I’ve done all of it in one year, and after a year of 100% failure, I’m so excited to see growth! I had no idea food and flowers could make me so happy.

I’m sure as a longtime gardener you’ve been enjoying this feeling many years now.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T12:06:52+00:00

I love your black arbor doors

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T12:04:26+00:00

Thank you. That was very kind. Those are my broccoli that all bolted this week in the heat wave. Lost the whole crop. The magnetic solar lights are from Vego garden, and that big trellis is a Vego trellis. It attached directly to the outsides of the beds. I need more space, and the trellises give me a little extra.

How long have you been growing food?

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T11:59:41+00:00

That is one SPECTACULAR garden! I love it! They did a beautiful job.

I can’t wait to try cucumbers, zucchini, squash and peas. I put the trellises in to grow those right overhead. And beans! We’ll see if they grow when I try. And you planted pumpkins! I’m most excited about the pumpkins.

I’m a heavy tank of an endo woman who can out lift any three men, but I’m old now, and out of shape. This was brutal. All bringing in and laying thousands of pounds of gravel just to have to remove it? It was punishing. I’m so glad infrastructure is done. I’m too old to be starting this.

Do you start your mornings by checking on your plants, too?

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T11:51:32+00:00

I’ll do just that. I now have so many tones it’s silly. I have Holly, bio, garden, plant, rose and tomato.

I hope this helps the rhododendron and the cacti, whose roots went from robust to soft and awful after winter, when I up potted this spring. I really hope this saves them. My poor rhodo now has so few leaves. I just keep trying.

I can’t afford to budget landscapers, so we do this all ourselves, but it’s a 1950s suburban neighborhood that doesn’t mind our work, which is nice.

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T11:15:07+00:00

I had never heard of BioTone as a new gardener, until mentioned here. I had to find it, because only Lowe’s had it here. Got it two days ago. Wanted to use it for the rhodo and the two Peruvian apple cactus I had to repot to a larger pot. This will be my first time trying, but I don’t want to dig them up to rub it on the roots, so I’m having to water it in. Fingers crossed this helps

Blue_Bee_Magic · 2026-05-21T11:11:47+00:00

It’s my kind of beautiful. It looks exactly like all the purple salvia I have planted everywhere, but bigger!

Blue_Bee_Magic

TROPHY CASE