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Rhododendron Disease Identification

MTB79MTB79 Posts: 52
in Problem solving
Hi all, 

My rhododendron is looking very sparse and spindly, it has lost a lot of leaves and a lot of the ones that remain has a strange disease on them. 
Is anyone able to identify what is wrong from the photos below?


Posts

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Can we see the whole shrub @MTB79?
    It's normal for them to get damage to some leaves, especially over winter, but if the shrub is sparse, the damage may have been caused by drought last year if you're in one of those badly affected areas. That affects them more than anything because they're shallow rooting. Established shrubs can cope with plenty of varying conditions, but once there are limits to what they can manage.
    Sometimes it's much later on before the damage is obvious, in the same way as with conifers, and it can be too late to save them. Some will revive with good, deep watering and mulching, but if they're too far gone, nothing will help. Always worth trying if you want the plant, but it depends on your point of view.
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Without seeing the whole plant, difficult to say,  but if it’s a lot of it and bare on the stalks, you can saw the whole thing down,  it will shoot out again quickly if its still alive and probably be ok. 
    If it’s too far gone,  then nothing to lose by cutting it right back. 
    We did this to ours about 3 years ago,  they’re lovely now. 
    They do prefer acid soil and like a lot of water.
    Right plant for the conditions is the way to go. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited April 2023
    Hot dry summer, unusally cold winter.  Your problem is merely cosmetic.  Pull off the ugly leaves and wait for new growth.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • MTB79MTB79 Posts: 52
    Here is the whole plant. The concern is it's been going downhill for just over a year and a number of other established plants have died in this border over the last three years, currently it's the rhododendron that is fading and a photinia is starting to go the same way too.

    I have looked for honey fungus and I can see no evidence but there is a lot of mycelium in the soil all along this border.


  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited April 2023
    MTB79 said:
    I have looked for honey fungus and I can see no evidence but there is a lot of mycelium in the soil all along this border.



     Honey fungus aka bootlace.  Does your mycelium look like that?


     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
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