David, you seem to know a heck of a lot more about Rhododendron's then I do. [g] While I have wanted a Rhododendron for years and attempted to grow one once or twice, I've never studied them. They just seem to be everywhere I look in my area. It is probably the first shrub any builder or landscape company adds to a new home's foundation here. A number of my neighbor's seem to grow them effortlessly, so I just made a very minor effort to identify one I wanted and put it where I wanted it and not where it needed to be and that worked out poorly. And this time, I've done it again and made an impulsive decision, only because I was thinking of getting one, found myself at a nursery and they were having an end of season sale @ 50% off and it looked like it was in pretty good shape. Nice dark foliage and dense with some flower buds ready to go for next spring. So, $50. and I brought it home. In my area, we have a nursery that specializes in Rhododendron and has bred them for years. Weston Nurseries in Hopkinton, where the Boston Marathon starts every spring. I have been to that nursery numerous times and they have some really great looking Rhododendrons all growing in a wooded area among very tall evergreen trees in a lot of shade. I did ask the nursery where I bought it where to place it and they suggested more shade than sun, screened from winter winds and from winter sun. My neighbor across the street has had a Rhododendron up against the front of his house since I moved here 40+ years ago and it's huge and he doesn't prune it. It faces West with a tree between it and the sunshine and is along the foundation so it has solid shade in the morning. Here is a photo of it... And he does absolutely nothing to it. I have no idea which variety it is and I'm sure neither does he, but it is a common Rhododendron in this area. A lot of the plant material in this neighborhood must have been placed by the builder of the development and that was in the 1950s. So, looking at that, I have the idea that it should be pretty easy to grow a Rhododendtron here. Pretty sure that Rhododendron was there before the tree, which was a weed seedling that grew up in a hedge and they kept it and got rid of the hedge. [g] I'm trying to plant in an established yard with 40+ year old trees already in place. I am sure if I made it more of a priority and went to the nursery here that specializes in them and had a well thought out plan, I should be able to have some success. And I hope to do that when other priorities stop marching to the front of my to do list. [g] In the meantime, I already planted the Rhodie and doubt that it is in the right place, but I wanted to get it in the ground and I thought I'll have the winter to spend a little more time researching it and figuring out if it is in an okay spot or not and I can always move it in the spring. it definitely should have protection from winter winds with a Taxus to it's west and an Arborvitae to the south of it and only a little morning sun and shade a lot of the day. So at the worst, it won't get as much sun as it would like. I really appreciate your post, because I did have it in the back of my mind, that GardenGal does live where she might have an easier time growing some things than I do, but in this instance I wasn't sure if that was the case or not. And clearly there is enough difference between varieties to be more careful to select based on what your site offers. So, again, I benefited from reading your post, as well as everyone else's, so thanks. I can see I have not been careful enough about selection and siting.

While rhodies are not my favorite shrub - too much of the year as a big green blob - they are ubiquitous here and I lived for many years in a garden that had massive ones the size of a school bus. And although they can be transplanted relatively easily, size matters, and those will be very difficult to move and re-establish elsewhere without professional help. One suggestion would be to thin them out and limb them up so there is more of a structural, tree-like form that will allow light to penetrate through more easily.

Well, Floral, thank you! I sometimes do get around to taking that approach, but not usually my initial reaction. [g] I do grow organically, so my toolbox for addressing any kind of disease is limited. But I did take that approach with a rose that had a significant problem and I was actually reminded of that yesterday when I was looking at how healthy it looks this year. After about 4 years of limping along. What do you mean, 'the blemishes are on foliage which will drop soon anyway' ? I thought all the foliage on Rhododendron's was 4 season? I've been growing azaleas but not Rhodies.

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.