Low maintenance and drought tolerance are ALWAYS high on the list of client demands here in the PNW and plants that fit those descriptors are ones I tend to use most often in landscape designs. I don't have any personal preferences (except for in my own garden!!) and what I select depends primarily on the clients' preferences and specific site conditions. I do tend to select heavily from the Great Plant Picks website as I know these to be excellent choices for this area.

btw, azalea lace bugs are eminently controllable (as are the vast majority of local insect pests) and I seriously doubt they will be affecting how often rhodies and azaleas are used in PNW gardens. Which is a LOT!! I just tend to find them rather boring for the most part.

Thanks for the comment gardengal!

What methods of Azalea Lace bug control have you had success with?

I know that there are methods that can limit the damage, but I have not seen anything that completely gets rid of them. My clients that are not willing to spray insecticide have seen azaleas die within 3-4 years of initial infestation... and they are awfully ugly before that.

Here in Portland many of the major nurseries, including Portland Nursery (probably the most influential) advise against planting azaleas and rhodies now. Even if this advice is wrong it will definitely impact the number you see around town.

I think a big reason (certainly not the only one!) that they have become ubiquitous is that they have been hardy and low maintenance. Is that still the case? Most of my clients are not the kind to spray neem oil, especially if they can just plant something else and not worry about it.

I appreciate your opinion and have linked to it in the original blog post. Thanks!

In our area, certainly :-) And because this is pretty much ideal rhody growing country, they still are. My nursery sells several thousands of rhodies and azaleas each year over a wide variety of cultivars and species and I don't see that tapering off any time soon.

I find Neem oil to be a very versatile, nearly all purpose pesticide. In addition to being a completely natural and pretty much harmless product, it addresses a wide variety of insect problems (including spider mites, which are notoriously difficult to control via most other insecticides) and it also has very beneficial fungicidal properties. I recommend it highly when I am out in the field doing consultations.

Two areas where rhododendrons and prevalent local conditions don't line up that well are

- heavy soils

- marked summer drought

Also what I've been calling powdery mildew for years - but which may in fact be lace bugs much of the time - became a common spoiler about the time of the 1990 winter, with people thinking afterward their plants were shabby because of the cold. When in fact these could be seen to be "mildewing" and defoliating when examined.

The local native (western WA) patches of coast rhododendron tend to be strictly limited to excessively drained soils in foggy areas, where these examples often droop during the summer drought. So even with this western North American species there is that classic rhododendron combination for you, a very open textured soil, humid atmosphere and a moist growing season (if they could get it, in this instance).

Wild rhododendrons in Asia actually die if the summer monsoon doesn't come. F. Kingdon-Ward walked for days through dried up, dead rhododendrons on one trip.