{"id":3222,"date":"2019-12-27T00:12:30","date_gmt":"2019-12-27T08:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pal-question-856\/"},"modified":"2023-08-07T15:42:13","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T22:42:13","slug":"deadheading-rhododendrons","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/deadheading-rhododendrons\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadheading rhododendrons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Should you remove old blooms from rhododendrons and, if you should, which is best: to prune or snap them off?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here is what the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rhododendron.org\/pruning.htm\">American Rhododendron Society<\/a> says on the subject:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is desirable, with the large flowered rhododendrons, to remove the withered flower clusters after the blooming season. This is fairly easily done as the central axis of the cluster, usually called a truss, will break free from the plant with a quick snap of the thumb pushing on the side, or can be cut off with a hand pruner. With the smaller flowered rhododendrons and azaleas, dead-heading is labor intensive and and generally is not required.<\/p>\n<p>Dead-heading is usually done to make the bush look more attractive, to reduce the prevalence of fungus and to prevent a heavy set of seed. If it is not possible to remove the old flowers, it is usually not too detrimental, but flowering the next year may be reduced.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I have several mature rhododendrons in my own garden, and I deadhead the parts of the shrubs which are easily reachable, leaving the other areas to their own devices. For me, it&#8217;s an aesthetic choice, and I would probably do them all if I could reach and if I didn&#8217;t get very tired of the task. (It&#8217;s hard to do well with gloves since you can&#8217;t easily feel the right place to snap off the flower head, but it&#8217;s sticky work without the gloves.) I&#8217;ve never tried pruning them off, because it seems less precise (leaves a bit of a stub), but if rhododendron experts approve (as indicated above), I may just try it this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Should you remove old blooms from rhododendrons and, if you should, which is best: to prune or snap them off? Here is what the American Rhododendron Society says on the subject: &#8220;It is desirable, with the large flowered rhododendrons, to remove the withered flower clusters after the blooming season. This is fairly easily done as the central axis of the cluster, usually called a truss, will break free from the plant with a quick snap of the thumb pushing on&#8230;<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/deadheading-rhododendrons\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Deadheading rhododendrons<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[36,32],"class_list":["post-3222","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-rhododendron","keyword-shrubs-care-and-maintenance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/3222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=3222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}