by Leslie Cox; Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Use surgical gloves and Vaseline to deadhead sticky rhododendron blooms.

This is one gardening chore that must be done as soon as possible after the blooms are finished. Not doing it will mean a lot of energy is put into developing seeds and unless you are a rhodo breeder, this is not optimal in a garden setting.

Far better to deadhead the spent blooms and let the plant channel its energy into looking more beautiful for you the rest of the year.

But oh, what a chore this can be. Especially if you have any rhodos that have really, really sticky flower bits and they require a ladder to reach the top of the shrub/tree.

We have two plants of one rhodo variety fitting the sticky and tall category. It is a beautiful, vibrant pink. At least 12 ft (3.6m) tall, it is a virtual wall of albeit non-scented delight for the week and usually a bit it is in full bloom. (No tags when they were purchased so do not know its name.)

The plant at the front entrance to our property manages to stop everyone in their tracks…many of them snapping a photo with the ever-present cell phone of choice. The other one in John’s back garden grabs one’s eye when entering through the arbour. It tries to hide behind the Pieris japonica but fails. There is no screening those pink blooms.

Now the floral display is over, the cell phones are back in the pockets and we are left with the sticky job. So sticky, we tend to leave these two to the last. Until one day the light bulb went on.

And here is the Tip of the Week:

I now use disposable surgical gloves and smother the fingers of the gloves in Vaseline. Works like a charm! Being such a tall rhodo, I do have to re-apply liberal dollops of Vaseline periodically. The deadheading job goes a whole lot smoother now I am not trying to shake each sticky spent bloom off my gloves and into the compost bucket.