Rhodo pruning/shaping?

Hi guys
I'm aware that normally you don't prune Rhodo's much supposedly, but I've got this poor specimen (think it's around 6 yrs old) that for whatever reason has gone rather leggy & I'd really love to try & get it to become more compact, even if at the expense of a few years of flowers if need be.

Is it a feasible option do you think, & if so, how would I go about it and when?

 

i would prune some of the leggy bits off yes

 

Hi Bexy
Thanks for the speedy reply. Question now is - which leggy bits & how much of them etc. I've zilch idea on these about how much is too much & worried I might take off so much it'll have no hope of recovery let alone improvement :(.

 

i would take off a couple of bits of foliage

 

While not an expert on rhododendrons. I have one low growing variety that before I got it had been cut back to about 9" above the ground, because it had become "leggy". Now 4 years later it is a healthy bush that has just produced it's first flowers. So certainly some of them can be cut back hard and will recover. So perhaps give it a go and with plenty of TLC it may reward you in a few years.

 

I am currently doing a raised bed and have a rhododendron which I am going to put in and found that under the membrane is at least 6 inch more stones which is covering the area.
Do I plant it on top of the membrane or on top of the gravel ....?

 

I think you have a 50 50 chance of it surviving if pruning it hard , I was going to suggest take one or two branches off and leave the rest but you only have the two , with that size pot its in which looks on the small size I doubt the shrub has the energy to produce new growth as its struggling now it would be a different story if growing in the garden and the roots ball would be so much bigger and have the energy to produce more new growth/shoots.

Spruce

 

That pot does look very small so the first thing I would do is re-pot it into a larger pot with ericaceous compost or else put it in the soil. Rhodos are shallow rooted which means the roots spread out just under the surface rather than downwards so I personally would give it a much wider pot. They can be grown in containers very successfully - I have some gorgeous specimens in large containers - but they do need to be looked after and re-potted every 2-3 years.

If you are going to prune then do so just after it's flowered. As Spruce said, there isn't much to cut back so you don't have an awful lot of choice but to cut back both branches.

You can either prune a third of the branches and then do the same next year or else prune hard in which case I'd take the right hand branch back to just above where the side shoot is and the other to around the same height, but that's my personal opinion and I would be willing to take the chance that it will survive.

Either way, you need to give the plant as much chance as possible to survive, which means giving its roots more space to grow and some ericaceous compost.

It looks quite dark where it is - is it getting much natural light? If not then I'd move it somewhere else where it'll get at least some sun but not too much.

In the 'v' between the two branches, is that another shoot coming up?