Field of Science

Friday Fabulous Flower - older but better


When you purchase a 100 yr old house, it comes with landscaping.  And the Phactors have removed several tons of overgrown and ugly trees and shrubs, although a few have been rejuvenated.  One venerable member of the pre-Phactors landscaping was a big, old Rhododendron, 10 feet tall, and sprawling across the entire space between a shingle oak and our house.  It's decades old.  Naturally an azalea/rhododendron bed was built along the entire east side even though the oak hates them.  No idea what type of Rhododendron this is really, it's the last to flower (late May, early June).  In our plant list it's just the "old fashioned rhodie"; any suggestions out there? At any rate since it's height was getting out of hand and a stem broke with the help of said oak dropping a branch on it, TPP pruned the entire thing down to a more modest 6-7 feet shrub.  And it branched out, thickened its crown and flowered this year like a mad fool. How nice! This plant has been here before; here's a closeup. Asked for help last year too, but nada.  Is it just a R. roseum?

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