It's all gouda: Rhododendron Behemoth

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Rhododendron Behemoth

Out here in the Pacific Northwest, rhododendrons can be found in just about every yard, park, or meadow. They love the climate and grow like crazy. And I mean like hyper-overdrive crazy. You never need to fertilize them ... they are happy with months of drizzle and survive the summer scorching sun.

We have several of them in our yard, and every year I hack them down by at least 2 feet on all sides and the bottom, as well as thin out the interior. It's a huge job and takes a full weekend. Here's the thing ... they grow back twice as full after trimming. One year, I hacked them back so much that my husband issued a trimming citation to me. It was all for naught, though, because the beasties grew back twice as full. It's a weird catch 22. If you don't trim them, they'll over take the landscaping. If you do trim them, they grow back with gusto. We even had one plant that we hacked right down to the ground. That was about 3 years ago, and now the thing is HUGE. They only bloom in the spring providing tons of stunning color in the yard and pollen for bumble bees. There's usually a ball and frizbee or two hidden in it's depths. Jeepers! I'm just thankful it hasn't swallowed one of the kids yet. It's a jungle in there.

In the photo, you can see that these plants are heavily weighted down with flowers. No scent, just lots of beauty. Once the flowers fall off, we'll "dead head" the botanical beasts, and then its time to wack the behemoth back a couple of feet.

3 comments:

Marjie said...: We have a number of rhodos in pink & white. I love them. I believe mine are between 50 and 80 years old. Believe it or not, they have a very tiny root ball, and can be transplanted even when they are huge! Yours are so pretty in red!

That backyard should be filling up with vacationing kids about now, too!; June 11, 2008 at 8:48 AM
Rhea said...: Wow, those are ROBUST! Gorgeous bushes...beautiful flowerings, but I hear your problem. LOL I wish I had that problem...I usually grow weeds really well or nothing at all. :o); June 11, 2008 at 8:34 PM
Paula said...: Marjie - I'm too afraid to check out the rootball for fear that the plant will swallow me whole (I can hear it going mmuuuhhhaaa!) My neighbors rhodies are pink and white, too, and they are lovely. I have a lilac one in the back that's over 7' tall ... grew over 2.5 feet this year!

Hi Rhea - I wonder if Home Depot makes some special tool for trimming these, perhaps a riding shrub-master -- that's what I could use a free lesson on! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.; June 11, 2008 at 9:12 PM

Post a Comment

Homeschool Tips and Tools: 2010

Bananagrams! Not too long ago, my kids and I discovered a great new game called Bananagrams. Far more fast paced and loads easier to play than Scrabble, this game requires only a table top and kids to get the fun underway. Better yet, adults and kids of all ages can play together. The playing pieces come packaged in a delightful, banana colored and shaped, zippered cloth pouch. It's free formed fun, and great entertainment for the entire family.

From a homeschooling perspective, it's a great tool to segue into creative writing or story telling. My kids create their own Bananagram "puzzle" and then use the words they created to write or tell an impromptu story. Silly or serious, all type of stories are encouraged!

The book titled English from the Roots Up by Joegil K. Kundquist has rapidly become one of my favorite resources for building a strong vocabulary base for my children. This spiral bound book provides both Latin and Greek word roots that provides students with tools to help them determine word meanings. I absolutely love it, and the rapid results that I see in my children are amazing. This is way better than a spelling program; by studying word roots, my children are gaining a much broader understanding of language and the power of words. The lessons are very easy to administer, short in duration, and my kids enjoyed them.

On the writing frontier, there is a book called Story Starters, Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Before by Karen Andreola that provides writing prompts in the form of partially written stories for children to complete. While I found the book to be just ok, my children love it. I read the partially written story aloud, and they write the rest. The kids really enjoyed doing this as each of them looked forward to hearing the other's completed versions. This ended up being a great experience as the kids really wanted to impress their siblings with their version, and thus put more effort into their writing.

And for the grammar enthusiast lurking inside your student, here's a great book that explains how to diagram sentences. Diagraming Sentences by Deborah White Broadwater is a 46 page workbook complete with an answer key, and is perfect for your middle schooler.

Does your student embrace Science? Do you need quality supplies to conduct more in depth experiments at home? Check out Home Science Tools. I'm very impressed with the quality of the products we just ordered. Beakers, flasks, stirring rods, thermometers, chemicals, safety equipment, and so much more can be found and ordered on their website. www.homesciencetools.com . The items we received were top quality, the customer service rep was super, and the items were extremely well packed and delivered as promised. Look out Bill Nye ... future scientists in the house!

Lapbooking and Notebooking are buzz words in the homeschool community. Here are two great resources for incorporating those strategies into your learning curriculum. Big Book of Books by Dinah Zike and The Ultimate Lap Book Handbook by Tammy Duby and Cyndy Regeling helped me enhance our homeschooling experience using lapbooks. The content found in these books enabled me to teach a group of homeschool mom's how to incorporate lapbooking into their curriculums. You'll want to laminate your copies as they will get pulled off the shelf over and over again.