Thanks, buford. I think I've bugged enough people about beetle problems for today, will give it a rest. I'm so confused at this point, I don't want to ask any more questions, don't know if the ext guy can help or not. He told me to take the traps down, but when I asked if the beetles would disburse now that I've already drawn many, he didn't know. Beetles miss the traps, and traps only trap part of the beetles you attract, grub control spring and fall plus supplemental with Merit or similar, several chemicals, sprayers, spreaders, additives so what you spray will adhere, and that doesn't cover those that are in the neighbors' yards totally untreated whether I trap or not. Read some more, think I will move the trap in the back yard if I have to put a nail in the wood trim on the big, wide metal door, single-car garage (ground too hard many places to sink my shepherd's hook I bought, or just get rid of it, or take it down and cover it well, and wait and see. So many other choices. Plus the traps I am using, the beetles they draw will stop and feed on plants in the flight path, don't like that. Ag guy told me a week ago that all the neighbors have to put up traps for them to be effective, and they would be facing the same problem I am, too much shade, small yards, lots of trees and shrubs, no roses in the block I'm aware of. But once you have them in any numbers, you have to do something or they will totally destroy some plants, even feed on the underside of leaves, haven't been looking there. My clump of birches in front may have been attracting them all along, never saw any on lower leaves, most limbs have had to be trimmed off, but no telling how high they could be in those tall things, and they feed from the top down. I didn't ask any more questions, just summarized a PORTION of what I googled. The useful link is for KY, not my state, but lists the plants definitely attacked and those relatively free of adult beetles. Here is a link that might be useful: Managing adult beetles, U KY Coll. of AG, ext. entomologist

Sue, The dark spots on the lower surface sound like lace bugs. Whitish specks on the upper surface of leaves and dark spots varnish-like on the bottom are symptoms of Rhododendron Lace Bugs, Stephanitis rhododendri, and Azalea Lace Bugs, Stephanitis pyrioides, small insects with transparent wings on under-surface of leaves.. This insect hatches early in spring as the new foliage begins to mature and its numbers may build to damaging levels with successive generations. Lace bugs reach their peak in late summer and do their worst in sunny, exposed sites. Spiders are important predators of lace bugs and since they shy away from sunny, hot places, plant your azaleas where there is some shade. Insecticidal soap, horticultural oil, or a systemic insecticide may spare your azaleas the damage if applied in spring when the first hatchlings are noticed. Care must be taken to spray the lower surfaces of the leaves where the lace bugs live. Moving a plant to an area with more shade may alleviate the problem. Lace bugs are more prevalent on certain varieties. Cottony masses on underside of leaves are a symptom of egg masses of the Cottony Azalea Scale, Pulvinaria floccifera. They are up to 1/2 inch long. Control is the same as with other scale insects. The scale insects are what secrete the sugary substance that becomes sooty mold growth on stems and petioles. This includes Azalea Bark Scale, Eriococcus azalea, and Cottony Azalea Scale, Pulvinaria floccifera. These small sucking insects feed on the bark and exude a sticky substance that turns the stems black. A scale infestation is indicated by sooty mold on leaves, yellowing of leaves, and twig dieback. This scale is most obvious from May through June when white egg sacs may be found in twig forks. Heavy infestations over several seasons may kill plants. Overwintering immature scales (nymphs) are about 2 mm long, gray, and are usually found in twig forks. This scale primarily attacks azalea and rhododendron, but has also been found on andromeda, maple, arborvitae, willow, poplar, and hackberry. Azaleas can tolerate low populations of this scale without injury, and if there are no yellowing leaves, no treatment is necessary. Beneficial predators and parasites will usually provide adequate control of light scale infestations. Examine egg sacs for holes which indicates control by parasites, and look for predators such as ladybird beetles. To control heavy infestations, spray dormant plants with a late oil spray to kill developing nymphs on twigs. If necessary a 2% summer rate of horticultural oil may be applied in July after all of the eggs have hatched.

Hello, Carrie, Personally, I would leave the paths plain. I have a gravel driveway. The stones slip underfoot, unexpectedly shifting one's footing. And, the stones are not particularly cooperative about staying in the driveway! There is a GW Rhodendron group. They seem to be moderately active. Someone there might know what is causing the weakened condition of some of your bushes. There is a weevil, which attacks rhodendrons. It does the most damage to the root systems, but the condition of the leaves is how one can tell if there is an infestation. The surface of the leaf would look bumpy rather than smooth. Too much leaf matter on the ground could cause root rot, but rhododendrons do like some mulch. They like acid soil conditions. I suppose if there are too many bushes clustered together that could produce a weakened condition because of competition for sustenance. Azaeleas are the same family. They are more heat tolerant, and I assume, therefore, more sun tolerant. They might be nice alongside your paths. Lorna

When trimming, keep in mind that this is a matched set of “bookends,” so they should be exact, mirror image duplicates of each other as much as possible. I would think of the trimming project as a challenge … as if you were involved in a manufacturing process making a machine project on a lathe or something along those lines. It would not be at all detrimental to use a tape measure to double check dimensions for matching throughout the process. I would rough out the shapes of both before fine tuning either. The place to begin is standing back well away from them trying to envision what they are to become. If the shrub needs to be moved a little left, right or forward, this is the time to notice it and account for the adjustments you’ll need to make in the cutting. It really barely matters where the plant roots are located. If you the shrub to be 4” to the right, “move” it there with the cutting process. It’s important to envision the finished product before cutting because there is a substantial part of them that won’t get any cutting at all. If you just charged up on them and started hacking away, there’s a good chance you’d cut some wrong parts off. Since the pair of shrubs are matched, the first cuts to make should determine the height. (To match the pair, follow a line on the siding of the house as a guide. Don’t measure from the ground.) Keep in mind that you do NOT want to cut at the place where you envision the limits of the finished product to be (the red line in picture.) There are three reasons for this. As soon as you finish cutting the plant it’s going to grow and if you cut it at the finished height, in a short time it will grow too large. The second reason is because, even though you tried hard to make it a perfect shape, it’s not going to end up as perfect as you’d hoped for. Later, when you need to trim and try to perfect it again, you will want to be cutting only in the newer, softer, easier-to-cut foliage, rather than in the hard, sticky, woody portion. If you don’t cut a little smaller in the first place, you’ll probably end up where the next cutting has to dip somewhere into the woody portion of the plant again. This is a royal pain. If you make the plant a little smaller to begin with, it gives you a “cushion” against having this happen. In general, I find that people have a strong resistance to cutting the plant smaller (the blue line in the picture.) But do yourself a favor and get over this. If you mistakenly cut this plant to a stub, in two years you’d barely remember your error because it would be pretty large again. In cutting it just 6” less than you want it to be, in two months you’ll barely remember or notice that you did that. The third reason you want to cut the plant a little smaller than the “finished product size” is because the more foliage you remove from the top portion of the plant, the greater it is that you expose the bottom portion (the part that is undercut and desperately needs to grow) to more light and an improved chance of quicker growth. Between the yellow line (which represents the ground plane) in the picture and the shrub, there is nothing at all to cut … until you get higher up to the blue line. At this cavity at the lower portion of the shrubs, all the foliage will be left untouched so it can continue to grow as quickly as possible. The goal is to keep the upper portions of the shrub trimmed so that it shades the lower portions the least as possible. Even if you want the shrubs to be larger than what I'm showing, for now you should trim them as I'm showing because you're in a corrective phase trying to regain the lost lower foliage. In your second-to-last picture, it shows how a subordinate, adjacent shrub has encroached on the Yew, which is clearly the more important shrub. The lesser shrub should be trimmed such that this doesn't happen.