Your experience is unfortunately very common. Rhododendrons grown in peat-based planting medium, as most are today, need to have the rootball teased apart, violently if necessary. If dry, the root ball needs to be soaked before planting. Further, they need to be watered with just a trickle at the base for at least the first year after planting.There is generally such a difference between the peat-based growing medium used in the pots and the soil - especially if it is not amended - that it is very difficult for the roots to establish themselves. Professional landscapers should know this, but either do not know or do not care to do it right.

Did they receive a lot of sun there? I tried my best to get my rhodie to like living on the south side of my house, but it still never grew there. It was much happier after I moved it to shade.

Mainegrower, thanks for your response. I am amazed these plants are still alive, and they already seem happier after their transplant to another location. My watering advice for them was as bad as the planting technique itself, I was told to keep them soaked, to water heavily every day for the first year. This from a (supposed) pro landscaper.

Today we began to transplant compacta hollies into the holes and since they are in larger pots we expanded the planting holes. We found totally soaked clay soil, clumps of it. Obviously no drainage. They obviously dug the smallest possible hole and did nothing to amend the surrounding soil. We plan to use a fork or maybe a large spike to improve the drainage in the bottom of the holes and also to mix some of our superb compost with the clay to use for backfilling the holes. The hollies are planted in a good mix so other than cutting into the mildly rootbound root ball to loosen it, and to soak it, we plan nothing else unless you would have other thoughts.

Again, many thanks for your response and your thoughts. I am getting a little tired of being cheated by so many of the people we deal with, but I guess that's just life and we will try to remain calm and thankful for the good people we encounter. Needless to say, this guy gets no recommendation from us.

Sara, I am sure the southern orientation was part of the problem. Rhodies THRIVE in our location in WMD, and we have them doing wonderfully on the north, east and west sides of our home. The ones in question received full sun exposure not only from the south but also from the east and west. Interestingly, when we redid the landscaping, no rhodies had been previously planted in that location. So it was just not the right place to put them. We relocated them to what would be described as "dappled shade" in acid soil under pine and other trees and they already look better. Also the soil is better there and we also dug larger holes. Let us pray!

Your planting plan sounds fine, but I am far from an expert on hollies. The only suggestions I would make is to dig a wide hole and roughen the sides so there is not an overly abrupt transition between the clay and the amended soil. There is also the possibility of creating the dreaded "bathtub effect" if the clay is really poor draining. While it is definitely not a good practice for rhododendrons, there are many advocates for not amending the soil at all for most plants so you do not create a kind of sump that remains far too wet. Gypsum can be a useful additive for improving clay soil, but each situation is a little different.

PJM is probably the toughest, most adaptable rhododendron ever created, so unless the heat from the southern exposure plus the reflection from the house was just too much, this was not the most important issue. The root problem was.