I hadn't been to the shrubs forum in a while.

There's no way in hell either of those would grow in NC on their own roots. Anywhere in the mountains that's cool enough in summer would eventually be too cold in winter. Sorry.

If you could get one grafted onto a root rot resistant rootstock, the very hardiest forms of either might be OK in the milder parts of the Piedmont. But nobody in the PNW will graft them. Kathy Van Veen was the only one who could and one of my top 3 regrets of my horticultural life was not getting her to make more of them for me. We never had a chance to try a big leaf before she died of brain cancer. Meanwhile, in perky little Australia - a country with a population less than the NYC and Philly metro areas combined - a large selection of WA native Proteaceae are widely available in retail, non-mail order nurseries, grafted to grow in SE AU.

I'm trying to prod David Parks into offering them...he got a few grafts to take after I sent him a lot of rootstocks and scions. But I think like a lot of small business owners, he's stretched thin, and has to focus on his core line of business...camellias.

There's another southern nursery allegedly trying to offer grafted rhodies, but their choice for a rootstock is completely dunderheaded. I saw them in a production greenhouse and half of them were clearly already dying of root rot, even in pots!

Well, I have one of each purchased from the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden that I’ll get to enjoy however long they live. I’ll set my bar super low as to not be disappointed.

Yeah, that's another PNW nursery that loves sending plants to die in other parts of the country. 🤣 About 10 years ago some lady in the Ozarks ordered all of the available big leafs from them. They all died. It oddly seems more forgivable w/them because they are at least non-profit.

I'm sure you'll keep us updated. It usually takes a while for the right Phytophthora to 'find' and innoculate them. I found that big leafs could last at least a couple years in pots especially if kept shaded. (Probably too shaded for optimal growth - even those want a bit of sun) When planted, they almost always died w/in a year or two. Usually an event will precipitate this: in 2011, Hurricane Irene and adjacent storms dumped over 30 inches on my garden in a span of roughly 40 days. A R. rex I got the prior spring on site at RSF had actually survived until then - I'd had the sense to plant it on a bit of a mound...something I'd just figured out around that time. If I could go back in time, I'd plant it on the steepest slope I could find. It might have lasted a little longer. But even in southeastern Massachusetts, a Rhododedron rex that got to be 3-4' high still died in a hot summer. If that happens up there, you really have no chance.

FWIW I'm trying biofungicides like Actinovate for varieties I'm worried about, like 'Dawn Star'. Even though it's on a slope, one of its parents is the notoriously cranky 'Capistrano'. Even on super well drained New Jersey pine barrens soil, Hank Schannen started calling that one 'Crapistrano'. So far, so good. It's survived two hot dry summers that had some heavy downpours. Still I think there are limits to what they can do.