I think hard pruning will be just as temporary as any pruning. It will come back the same way. The best way to get the back to grow is to remove some of the front. That is what is shading the back. If you want a more uniform looking plant, you need to open it up. This results in a healthier plant with good air flow and light getting to all parts. Another trick is to paint the fence (at least that part) white so more light gets to the back. Also, heavy doses of nitrogen will weaken the plant and may prevent it from blooming. A good balanced rhododendron fertilizer is a much better choice. Rhododendrons are easy to move. They have very shallow roots. If you could just move it out from the fence, things would improve.

Salman, Can I ask where in Toronto you are located? It would help me narrow down what kinds of zonal needs you will require. There are several microclimates in the GTA. I'm very excited for you and I'm reminded of my own excitement and I started to garden a couple of decades ago. Anyway here are my 'modus operandi' when it comes to trying to figure out if the day will work for planting. When the weather is very harsh - don't plant. Very hot sun, dry weather - not a good time to do any planting. Don't do any planting between 12 - 3:00 p.m. when the sun is above and the temps are close to 30s. In fact if worse comes to worse and I have to do any form of planting in such an environment, I would water the plant well, plant it either early morning or evening (when the sun is gentle) - and I would put up a shade cloth/netting over the plant. I would also top mulch to help keep moisture levels even. And once planted, continue to water well until the plants are established. So right now, we are still just beginning to get heated up. It probably is still good to do some planting but keep in mind the weather which has been erratic. The best kind of time do to any planting is when the sky is overcast. Prepare your grounds before planting. So break up the soil, add your compost (NO CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS YET. IN FACT NO FERTILIZING WHEN THE SUN IS HARSH, HENCE TRY TO SKIP ANY FERTILIZING DURING WORSE OF THE SUMMER) royal purple smokebush - SUNNY LOCATION summer snowflake (viburnum) - SUNNY LOCATION. It tends to be sensitive to mildew so keep it in areas that have a good airflow. french lilac - SUNNY LOCATION. dappled willow - Willows are aggressive plants and some can be rather huge and invasive. But this is something that I suspect is the Hakuro Nikishi willow which is small and fairly well behave. You'd need to prune it back each year to keep it small. Willows love good watering. bleeding hearts (dicentra formosa) - wet shade planting. Probably of all the plants you listed down this one that is sensitive to any harsh sun. pink lilly of the valley - wet shade garden. Same as the bleeding heart. anyway, like the bleeding hearts, these grow from the roots up every year so the idea is to keep the roots healthy despite if the foliage starts look bad. serviceberry -- you can still put this in the ground if you follow the above. bowman's root - sorry, I'm not familar with this plant. green and white euonymus - sun and partshade garden. same as the other shrubs. For me, if I cannot stand being outside in the heat, it's probably not too good for new plants to be put in the ground yet. If it's too harsh, set them aside in their pots and wait till the weather improves. -- say by end of August or early Sept.

They are all very lovely, love the "fat" look and ruffles of Hog Haven, and White Mountain is a very pretty white. Karen

Soil is really warm down there - even under the mulch hay where I had the potatoes it's about 56. The rows where I wanted to plant the edamame (actually more like trenches - where the tomatoes drowned in 2011), with just weed cover is 70! But I noticed that areas that are normally soggy with poor drainage aren't now. Not that they're dry, the weeds seem to be doing OK in the trenches, but the flatter area across the road from there where the manure pile is isn't squishing as I walk on it. And the deep pit at the end of the trellised trenches I filled with chicken manure and sawdust, where I had all the volunteer tomatoes last year b/c it's glacial till underneath and doesn't drain (I never had to water those volunteers last summer) has only a couple small weeds growing in it. We've had just over an inch of rain this month (TWC says we had 1.5" last month but Dad didn't mention any the night before we got back from vacation so I'm not sure about that day). We got just 1/100" yesterday (supposedly - my rain gauge broke and I haven't replaced it). We're expecting more next week, but of course it's too far away to tell how much - just a 20-30% chance early in the week and supposedly more later. But it worries me that we're getting 1-1.5" when we should be getting 4.5" a month this time of year - it's been below normal for almost a year now, we didn't even get as much snow as normal. Reservoirs and ponds are still looking OK, but our springs aren't running like they normally do - the one that feeds our pond isn't making it all the way there any more, and the one that runs along our driveway (we had to put in a culvert when we built) disappeared a month ago. The only thing that's keeping things green is the snow melt and that won't last much longer. I'm wondering if I should scale back (though I've spent money on supplies, incl. lumber for hoophouse) this year, just sell my plants and keep a small garden near the house for us. I haven't sent in my fee for market yet. I just don't want to spend $200 for market, $50 for insurance certificate, and bust my butt (and run the well dry) all summer hauling water out back to keep the beans, edamame, 100+ tomatoes and 50 peppers watered and then find (like I did with peppers and onions last year) that it wasn't enough and I don't harvest (m)any. This post was edited by ajsmama on Thu, May 16, 13 at 13:17