Spacing & sowing

Plant spacing

6 ft 7 in

In-row spacing

6 ft 7 in

Between rows

8 ft 2 in

Square-foot density

Not suited to SFG

Growing

Type

Shrub · Perennial

Botanical family

Mixed / other

Sunlight

Partial shade, sheltered from cold winds.

Watering

Keep it moist with rainwater; this matters most through summer.

Feeding

An ericaceous feed once flowering is over.

Frost tolerant

Yes

Flowering

April

Pruning

Deadhead after flowering, taking care not to cut off the new buds.

Through the year

• Mar–Apr Bud Break
• Apr–Jun Flowering
• Jun–Dec Growing
• Jan–Mar Growing

Companions

Camellia, Azalea, Pieris, Ferns

Pests & problems

• Vine weevil Adults notch leaf edges at night; their plump C-shaped grubs devour roots, especially in containers. Hand-pick adults after dark and water in biological nematodes in late summer.
• Peony botrytis blight Rhododendron bud blast
• Phytophthora root and foot rot A waterborne rot of woody plants that kills from the roots up: the whole plant fades and wilts, and the bark at the base is stained rusty-brown beneath.
• Powdery mildew A white dusty coating over leaves and shoots when roots are dry but the air is humid. Keep plants watered and mulched, prune for airflow, and remove the worst leaves.

Garden allies

Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. ★ companion plant

• Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.
  Hunts Vine weevil

  Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.

• Frogs & toads Anura
  Hunts Vine weevil

  A resident toad works the beds every night for slugs, cutworms, and weevils. Recruit them with water — even a sunken basin pond — plus damp shade and an upturned-pot toad house; skip the slug pellets that poison their prey.

• Ground beetle Carabidae
  Hunts Vine weevil

  Fast, glossy night hunters that patrol the soil surface for slugs, cutworms, and root-fly larvae. Give them daytime cover — thick perennial edges, stepping stones, a log — and skip the tillage that wrecks their burrows.

  Plant nearby LavenderMintThyme
• Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus
  Hunts Vine weevil

  A European animal, and worth saying so plainly: there are no hedgehogs in North America, and the ally that does the same night shift here is the toad, the opossum or the ground beetle. Where they do occur, cut a gap in the fence and skip the pellets.