Hi I’m Dave Epstein. This is Growing Wisdom. It is mid to late fall already around here and leaves are off the trees. And one of the things that happens in my garden is I start looking around for those areas which have no winter interest. You might notice the same thing in your garden. You have an area that looks bare. This area and this part of my yard, I’ve got a blue atlas cedar and then nothing in front. And I just find it doesn’t look that nice. the blue atlas cedar of course is interesting and I love it, but the other parts in the front here are not as interesting. So we’re going to place some plants for winter interest. They also have a bonus of giving a spring color, but really I’m putting them in for the winter.
What I’ve chosen to use in this location are three small leaf rhododendrons. They’re westerners used introductions. We’re going to use midnight ruby, may flower, and dora amateis, three really nice plants which will hold their leaves all winter long. As an added bonus, they’re also going to flower in the spring. They are called small leaf rhododendrons because their leaves are much smaller than the larger leafed ones. They need a little more sunshine than their larger leaf cousins as well.
What I hope to achieve as I’m plating this rhododendron in this area is to make this area so it has a continuation of winter color. It’s also going to help ground the blue atlas cedar a little bit. It’s a very tall and narrow plant. And by putting the three rhododendrons in front of the blue atlas cedar, it doesn’t look like it’s just standing alone one individual plant coming out of the ground. It’s going to look more designed. And that’s the goal. Now, let’s get to work.
So as you can see, three rhododendrons really did change this area a tremendous amount. Our goal is to create a little bit of winter color, which we did and the area looks a little more designed.
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