Is it worth a try? please comment!!!

bart_2010

12 years ago

Hi, I am making a large garden on my land here in Tuscany, Italy. Supposedly it's around zone 8-9;very hot and dry in summer, mild winters. I've got lots of roses flourishing ,but now I'm staring to branch out,putting in other shrubs and plants. The garden is far from my home, and has no running water, so must depend on rainfall and what i can harvest or bring in.
I love azaleas and rhododendrons,but have never really tried to grow them seriously. Around here, you never see these grown in gardens, only in pots. I thought that this might be because the soil here is alkaline or something, but a neighbour is growing camellias in his yard, and they seem fine. Once I did try a small PJM rhodie in a pot, but it dwindled constantly. I even tried planting it out in the garden,preparing a spot with lots of peat moss and soil for acid.loving plants, but to no avail; it just continued to dwindle and then died. For what it's worth, I had bad experiences with rugosa roses,which seemed similar to what happened with the PJM : a total refusal to grow and thrive (and most roses do very well for me...)
So I am so curious! I read somwhere on Internet a description of heat stress on rhodies,and this seemed to describe what happened to mine. Is this area just too hot in summer for azaleas and rhodies? But if so, how do these people manage to grow them in pots (and they are big pots, too)? If it's alkaline soil, why didn't the fact that I changed the soil for the PJM have no effect (and the plant was too small to have out-grown the prepared hole)? and why would camellias do better? I'd love to hear what anyone has to say about this. It's not that I'm so determined on growing something that can't thrive in my area, it's just that I'm going crazy trying to figure out just exactly what it is that might prevent folks from growing azaleas and rhodies out in gardens in this area!!!By the way, I seem to remember that around the lake of Como, further north, both azaleas and rhodies thrive... bart

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Comments (3)

akamainegrower
12 years ago
Excessive heat is very stressful for most rhododendrons and azaleas with the possible exception of some the Japanese azaleas which have been bred to withstand heat. There are also some large leaf rhododendrons beginning to appear which have rhododendron hyperythrum as a parent which have also been bred to be growable in very warm climates. In any case, even these would not be able to take much direct sun exposure. A dry summer climate would only add to the difficulty as a relatively high degree of atmospheric moisture is necessary for rhododendrons to grow well. The area around Lake Como would be both cooler because of altitude and have moister air.

It would be easy enough to check soil pH with a basic kit sold for that purpose. The physical structure of the soil, however, is just as important as pH. Rhododendrons and azaleas need a planting medium that consists of at least 25% - 50% is better - organic matter. Then there is the fact many root diseases become much more of a problem when the planting medium reaches a high temperature.

Camellias are better adapted to hot climates than the vast majority of azaleas and rhododendrons even though they also require acid soil. Pot culture may be successful because of the extra attention the plants receive. Large terra cotta type pots also provide natural cooling through evaporation.
bart_2010
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for your reply, akamainegrower. Altitude-wise,I am at about 650 meters above sea level; possibly higher than Lake Como, but definitely with much drier air. It's a fascinating subject...bart
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akamainegrower
12 years ago
Another possibility which occured to me after my first post: there are several rhododendron species - the maddenii group comes to mind - which are grown successfully outdoors in places like California and Australia. Checking into specific information from these climate areas may give you some further ideas of types to experiment with in your location. Many are, I'm quite sure, available by mail order to EU countries from nurseries in England, Germany and probably other places. A simple misting system would not be terribly hard to install and would do much to address the problem of atmospheric dryness. You might become the founding father of Tuscan rhododendron culture.