Another first
It’s getting harder to achieve new “firsts” after twenty five seasons in the landscape but it still happens. Just last week I made a local Karen cry after reducing her rhododendron! There she was, crying fake crocodile tears, in the middle of the road. I was stunned. And it was a first for me.
Now, over the years I’ve upset many people with my pruning. Not on purpose but in instances where I failed to tell the client what the result would look like. One annoying example is a mortgage broker friend with several large rhododendrons in the back of the house. I managed to reduce all of them nicely but one specimen was extremely leggy. So I decided to make the same cuts because this was a larger specimen but the resulting reduction looked harsh.
The lady paid me well but a year later the husband told me that she was unhappy with the results. Oops. That’s how you get field experience. The owner was unhappy but she didn’t run into the street to cause a scene.
Oh, Karen!
Now, I should mention that I was a bit unlucky. The resident Karen happened to own the biggest rhododendron specimens which meant that her cuts would look drastic. They really did look drastic but, remember, my instructions were to reduce all rhododendrons by forty to fifty percent. I have to follow my specifications if I want to get paid.
I ran into the lady again before leaving the site and I told her she did well sending complaints to her strata and management company. I never take crap on site from residents, even if they’re somehow right.
Shock and awe
If you let your rhododendrons get really big then, logically, to reduce them you’ll have to make some big cuts. Luckily, rhododendrons have latent buds under the bark which push out after pruning. It just takes time.
Here’s an example from the same complex. You can see the original height on the left and the new version on the right. I’m expecting the stems to push out latent buds so the shrub should green up again nicely.
Two other points. Since the buds were already set for next summer, you can’t expect a great flower show next summer. That’s the price you pay for the reduction.
And, rough-barked species like this one recover better than smooth-barked species. Keep that in mind.
Never stress
In everything I do in the landscape I try to make my clients happy. Having a Karen crying crocodile tears in the middle of her complex was distressing. It got worse when three other women of a certain age joined her in the street. But it felt good knowing I could smash my way through this senior mob if they came at me.
I should also mention that the lady is universally detested in her complex. She’s a certified Karen so I suspect she would have complained anyway. Immortalizing her in this blog post is my therapy.
