Growth buds on rhododendrons form in the leaf axils (where leaf joins stem). If you make a cut just above a rosette of leaves, new growth will emerge from the dormant eyes there. If cutting into a branch below any leaf rosettes, look for faint rings on the bark which mark the ends of previous growth periods where there once were leaves. Careful inspection should reveal small bumps which are growth buds under the bark. Make your cuts just about the rings and dormant buds below them should be stimulated into growth. If you can't find any rings or dormant buds on bare branches, make your cuts where you must, after, when new growth starts, remove stubs down to new growth. Azaleas however, have dormant growth buds all along the stems just under the bark...

wisconsitom Oklahoma City has been replacing the (blah) import stuff and going all native in their plantings downtown, along medians and the landscaping around government buildings. I know people like flowers but here they are doing mass plantings of mostly native grasses with other plants as accents which makes me very happy. We are a prairie state so I think its a matter of state pride being shown and focused on along with watering issues and lower maintenance. They also added a lot of large life sized cast-bronze buffalo's and they place them among the grasses, like a mother with two calves or as singles. Isn't that cool? The grass is very decorative when massed planted in drifts and people seem to be liking it a lot down here. The new bridges and underpasses have locally native animals like Scissor Tail Flycatchers and Native American designs as reliefs in the concrete. I've been adding a lot more prairie grasses to my own property too. I want it to be predominantly grasses with flowering or textural plants as accents. I feel the grasses tie everything together and makes the flowers look better than when its all flowering plants. At the History Museum there was some beautiful solidago planted in front of a thicket of Three Leaf Sumacs. I googled it and found that they are a type called 'Fireworks', low growing with arching branches. I collected a few seeds. They also have a tall mass of Azure Salvia along with other natives like liatris, hibiscus, gaillardia, rudbeckia and several others but the grasses are the main event. They have massed in prairie grasses with a huge area of little bluestem, big bluestem and another of all Indian Grass planted in a swale, these all sway in the wind which we usually have lot of. There is a large hill of big rocks encrusted with 4 types of prairie grass (muhlenbergia riverchonnii, sideoats grama, blue grama and purple three awn) and the seeds literally glow with light in late afternoon. There is a huge planting all done in switchgrass with two smaller types around the perimeter with several buffalo in the midst of it. The bluestem is a mass of blue leaves that turns purple with seeds in fall. It looks good in winter too. I asked one of the guys who was working down there about the grasses etc and he said "Oh, you mean them weeds?". Oh well, there are some people who really will never 'get it'. Personally, I think its fabulous and its particularly stunning when seen at a distance from the highway. Grasses planted in mass just make a big bold statement.

hi -- if you're in a new yard, you'll probably have a better idea in the spring of what method works best for the conditions you have. personally, by late fall i've pretty much lost the motivation to do much yard work. -- the messy look of the dead/dying leaves doesn't bother me, so i don't do a thing to my hostas and let the leaves turn to compost on their own. i gather up what ever is left of the old leaves in the spring when i have more enthusiasm and when the new growth is emerging. in contrast though, my mother always does a major fall clean-up. in her zone (5) and her yard conditions (shadier and wetter than mine), if she doesn't get the dead leaves up before winter, her garden becomes not only the wet slimy mess that you describe, but, as a result, also a MAJOR slug party. the only way for her to stay ahead of the slug invasion is to clean the beds out in the fall. lucky for me, i don't have a severe slug problem, so i don't have those worries. in general, if leaves are still green, they're still producing food, and so best to leave them alone til they turn.

To my understanding, It is an invasive species in Europe (not the US) where it has escaped the garden and naturalized. It is a native species here. I find it fairly easy to control in my garden . Has it become a garden thug in your garden? or in the neighborhood? It is a welcomed plant because it attracts bees and butterflies. As a plant, it might not fit in your garden because it does need a certain amount of space because it can attain some size and become ungainly. IT does not seed out prolifically here outside of Austin. I would be more concerned of the root stolens than the seedlings. It makes a colony in the wild due to spreading stolens. Are we talking about Soldago candensis (taller likes deeper wetter soils), S. nemerosa ( smaller but spreads easier in dry alkaline soils.