What is a good rhododendron soil?
To start with the fundamentals, we often hear that rhododendrons favor a porous, acid soil with cool temperatures for the roots and with adequate moisture, at least during the growing season. Also, we are usually told that some shade is desirable. This is good enough advice, but it would apply equally well to cedar or dogwood, or to buttercups or bracken fern. Yet we find wild rhododendrons thriving in places where there are few, if any, cedars, dogwoods, buttercups, or ferns; indeed, where these plants might have difficulties. This raises some questions: What are the special features of the soils where wild rhododendrons thrive? Should we try to furnish similar soils and planting sites in our gardens? And, if we want to try this, how do we go about it? Young R. macrophyllum in the middle of a former logging road; now a little-used truck trail on a Christmas tree farm 35 miles southwest of Seattle. There is no shade. Photo by Frank Doleshy Wild rhododendrons grow in soils which are any
