I 
The Successful 
Rhododendron Bed 
SIMPLE RULES AND SURE RESULTS 
The highest ambition of the plant lover is to have a suc- 
cessful bed of Rhododendrons, together with other ericaceae 
and flowering plants that naturally go with them. 
How few succeed, is well known. Many, discouraged by 
the imagined or heard-of difficulties, never even make the 
attempt. And yet, under average conditions, success is as 
simple and sure as with ordinary shrubs. It is a question of 
doing just the right thing, before, during and after planting. 
Rhododendrons — and I include under this term 
Azaleas, Kalmias, Leucothoes, and other ericaceous 
genera and similar native (and exotic) plants — grow 
Nature 
Knows Best 
naturally in shady, damp situations, being surface feeders with fine hair- 
like rootlets. Plainly, therefore, dry, hard ground or drought checks 
growth or kills outright; nature provides against this; yet how many 
gardeners do? 
First Exca- A deep, porous soil prevents; drought so excavate 
vote The Bed ^ 3- feet or more and see that in clay soils good 
■ drainage is provided for, so that water will not stag- 
nate in the bottom and make " sour ground." 
Material for Rhododendrons live largely on vegetable mold and 
the Bed humus; therefore, fill in with a mixture of leaf-mold, 
rich loam, field sods, swamp muck or peat, with one- 
tenth sharp sand and one-tenth at least of well-rotted manure. The center 
of the bed should be raised above surrounding ground from 6 to 12 inches 
or more, according to diameter of beds and elevation of nearby features. 
Planting '^l^"' ^^""^ depth as before (shown by earth line on " col- 
^ lar" of stem) and firmlv press soil around roots with foot, 
but don't pack earth too solid —Rhododendrons are not bricks. Lilies 
and other bulbs and smaller ground-covering species should be planted 
after the larger plants are all in. 
Mulch, and yet mulch 
again, all the year round. 
This is the great Rhododen- 
The Great 
Secret 
dron secret. As soon as planted, cover the 
entire surface of the ground with a vegetable 
mulching — preferably hardwood leaves — to the 
depth of a foot when reasonably well packed. 
Xever remove this mulching, but let it 
remain the year round, and every fall add a 
new layer of similar depth. A foot of leaves 
in the fall means but a half inch or so of humus 
Younc Rhododendfons by ten* of 
thousands in lath • covered beds at 
Hishlandi Nursery, 3.800 feet ele- 
vation. 
2 
