This is the small beginning of my rhododendron walk! I’ve been wanting to fill in between the trees on the woods side with these great flowering and winter-green plants for so long and this is my (mostly symbolic) beginning. There is still so much work to do.
And the first step is a perilous test of my propagation skills with this poor, helpless plant.
The parent plant, above, is a huge rhododendron that has been growing near my deck forever. Last year, I finally had some other brush removed that was growing between it and the deck, including some arborvitae that had turned into trees. I’m hoping that it will fill back in a bit toward the deck and stop its forward movement away from it. There is only a narrow path between it and the rose ghetto. During the cleanup, I noticed a couple of shoots under the front of the plant and carefully started to shovel prune their roots last summer, using a sharp shovel to cut around the plant but not under it. This week, I dug under the shoots and moved them. About to where the purple trug is in the big picture. I’m convinced that they do better with some sun in my shady yard. And now I wait to see if the baby takes to its brighter and lonely new home.
It is a time of dividing and separating. A celebration of last year’s successes, fraught with risk as I’m not very experienced with this. Hosta; no problem; hard to kill. But a heuchera separation humbled me a bit. The parent plant had such distinct separations above ground that I thought dividing it would be easy. But no. They all seemed part of one root. And what to do about last year’s leaves? I just tried to leave some root for each division; not easy; and as last year’s leaves wilt, I’m cutting them off. I think that four of the five divisions will make it. I don’t know the name but this variety gets deep blue-green color on the top of the leaves when it’s mature but the undersides are a pretty purple.
Esther,
I cannot keep healthy heuchera here in NS. They last a year or so maybe three but I haven’t ever gotten lovely little off shoots. Maybe I should concentrate on making a better bed for the at some point. Are yours in full sun or partial shade?
The split ones in the picture are in full sun this time of year but get more shade when the trees leaf out. And there is a food bed on their south side that gets tall with beans and tomatoes, but not for months. The “Caramel” variety that I showed in another post is on the edge of the woodlands and gets morning sun all year, but shaded in afternoon.