Pontic Rhododendrons

 Note from the Author: Eventually we had to talk about the other half of the family.

 

 

Emerging shoots for new leaves are pretty strange looking.

The flower of a Pontic Rhododendron is very nice.

These small clustered buds will be leaves and branches sometime soon.

The flower bud is very distinct on a Pontic Rhododendron.

 

Common Name: Pontic Rhododendron

 

Other Common Names: Common Rhododendron

 

Botanical Family: Ericaceae (The Heath Family)

 

Botanical Latin Name: Rhododendron ponticum baeticum

 

Description & Habitat: 

          In our landscape we see a lot of Azaleas but their evergreen bigger leafed relative is often absent because of our climate. Needless to say all from a scientific perspective all azaleas are Rhododendrons but not all rhododendrons are azaleas. With that said Rhododendrons of this type are woody broadleaf evergreens, but can be deciduous in some colder climates. These plants are native to places such as Bulgaria, Lebanon and the Caucasus but are well adapted to our respective climate in zone 8. The genus name comes from the Greek word ‘rhodo’ and ‘dendron’ which mean rose and tree respectively. Physically this shrub is best recognized by its leaves which have a simple margin, are elliptical in shape and its alternate branching. As with a lot of rhododendrons this plant’s buds are also a good identification feature as flower buds are often born singly and are larger than leaf buds. On rhododendrons the flower buds bear several individual flowers whereas leaf buds may appear singly, or in clusters indicating potential branching. On average this type of Rhododendron can get up to 4 feet tall with a 5 foot spread, though if planted in too much shade it can get a bit tall while stretching for light.

 

In some older publications this plant may be listed as Rhododendron x obtusum.

 

Special Toxicity Note:  

Nothing on this plant is edible because it contains Grayanotoxins.

 

When & What to Harvest:

This plant is not edible.

 

Related Plants:

There are numerous species of Azaleas and Rhododendrons available on the market.

 

Recipe:

          Rhododendrons are inedible

 

 

Additional Information: (If applicable)

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/rhododendron-ponticum/

 

Where to get Seed or Bare Root Plants:

Generally this plant is not grown from seed and Rhododendrons are available in most garden centers or nurseries.

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but my booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog.  In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

Fresh Foods

Fig Leaf Tea, 8oz

Soupkit, Parsnip

Soupkit, Turnip

Carrots

Onions

Turnips

Celery

Red Potatoes

Parsnips

[Coming soon: Apothecary grade Powdered Fig Leaf]

 

Fall Plants

Brussels Sprouts

Collards

Corn Salad / Mache

Kale, Dinosaur

Kale, Ragged Jack

Kale, Rubybor

Kale, Scotch Blue

Lettuce, Buttercrunch

Sorrel, Raspberry Dressing

 

Garden Supply

Live Mushroom Compost, 1 Gallon

Live Mushroom Compost, 3 Gallon

 

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.

 

Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville

 

Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:

The Videos: Look Here

>Newest videos (1): Celriac

 

With all of the updates, blog posts, community announcements and the main topic handled remember that Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’s meetings are still going on! Our next (unofficial) meeting is October 3^rd at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Franklin Street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm, or at North South Brewing on the same day between 1:00 and 5:00pm.

The Garden Tour 2026 Part III

          On the blog for a few weeks we’re taking a break from the Fort Liberty series to talk about an event that happened in June.  There was an event at the Trial gardens, garden tour which is a yearly event held in the spring. You can see the full details of what the tour is, when it is held and other information about it on the July 16^th post at the link below.

 

https://bl2-litfm.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-garden-tour-2026.html

 

 

In today’s post we’re looking at the reconstruction of the Tall bed. Now despite what you see in the photos, this bed used to be even taller. Erosion of soil and the sinking of masonry caused it to lose height as I removed layers of bricks over the years. The only good solution was to use the same raised bed kit that I had used on the vegetable beds. Since it was a modular kit with a couple of standard shapes it could fit the shape perfectly.

 

The existing survey of plants in the bed with measurements based on old notes.

 

As the saying goes, measure twice cut once. I took a second measurement after I did the sketch just to be sure. That document in the  picture is the info pamphlet that comes with the modular garden kits and the cat is Kiki, she's the neighbors cat who comes over every time I'm in the garden.

 

Technically this isn't part of the process but, Kiki likes to ride around in then wheel barrow.

 

 

The next phase was brick removal, and at first I was moving them by the wheelbarrow load.

 

Then the supervisor got involved.

 

Finally I just started piling the bricks off to one side. This  is partially because I needed to see how deep the bricks had sunk into the ground.

 

Due tot he weight of the brick border the entire thing sank two full bricks in. this was both a good and bad thing because it wasn't too deep but also it still meant I had to carefully get a trenching shovel under the deepest layer to get them out.

 

The next step now all the bricks have been removed was to install the new raised bed kit. This is part of why I did extra measurements, I needed to know what the internal and external area of the bed was to make sure the raised bed kit would fit and what you see with that small amount of gap is exactly what you want.

 

The bed has been back filled with a mix of soil and mushroom compost in this picture.

 

 

This is the final product, hanging baskets, and the whole nine yards.

 

 

 

 

The Garden Tour 2026 Part II

 

          On the blog for a few weeks we’re taking a break from the Fort Liberty series to talk about an event that happened in June.  There was an event at the Trial gardens, garden tour which is a yearly event held in the spring. You can see the full details of what the tour is, when it is held and other information about it on the July 16^th post at the link below.

 

https://bl2-litfm.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-garden-tour-2026.html

 

Today we’re going to take a look at the reconstruction of the vegetable patch, which is an area dedicated to producing food by way of annual or biennial vegetables and fruit. During the summer it has historically produced Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Eggplant, Basil, Cowpeas, and Elephant Garlic. During the cold months its specialty is Cole crops such as Broccoli, Cauliflower, Collards, Kale, Arugula and, Radishes. Also this area has been used to produce Carrots and Celery. The bed however had a persistent issue with soil erosion and the encroachment of non-hybrid Bermuda grass and shoots form the neighbor’s Tree of Heaven. The soil erosion was the big problem because if I could not keep good soil in place, then any irrigation I did was less effective since what soil remained was not holding on to the water long enough to support my vegetable crops. The Vegetable bed was the first area to be upgraded as part of the plan to renovate ahead of the Garden Tour. The following series of pictures will show you what I did so that you can decide if it is something you would consider doing in your garden.

 

The first step is always measuring your area and then drawing up a plan. Each bed was six feet long by 3 feet and eight inches wide, and although not marked the area in between them is about two and a half feet wide. Because the modular raised bed kids have rounded corners in later planning sketches you'll see shadowed hard corners indicating negative space.

 

This is what it looked like before I started work. Only the four poles the surviving collard plants, the group of chicory plants and the nearly-buried paving stones in the middle indicate this was productive last year.

 

After the weeds and unwanted plants were cleared, the remaining amounts of decent soil were run through a compost sifter and put on the blue tarp. Some folks would not bother with this but I believe that in the sand hills even gray colored soil that doesn't look great is still better as a sub soil in a raised bed then buying bags of questionable topsoil at a place like Home Despot.

 

 

The excavated soil is then covered with a plastic sheet and the entire amount is covered to keep it dry while the rest of the preparation work is underway.

 

Once the first two raise bed kits are assembled, they are placed where the old vegetable beds used to be and the soil under the tarp is added. The two large pots off to the side are tree pots and they once contained annual crops that are now dead. The large pot's soil is added to the mix since it counts as being potentially near depletion. In the time between this picture and the last, I have cut down a Cattle Panel fence section, and you will be surprised at what I did with it.

 

Ultra Gross! Looks like my Sourdough recipe has gone horribly astray! Jokes aside, this is a storage tote full of stored Mushroom compost. It's sat in there for months and was set aside specifically for this very moment. The white stuff is fungi, but so is the  gray stuff. The liquid is from a process called Guttation, in which the very much alive fungi push out excess water  through their pores. Since this was in a sealed storage tote the extra moisture cant go anywhere and forms the yellow pools. It's harmless but mushroom compost that looks like this is worth it's weight in gold as a soil amendment and as a fertilizer.

 

The compost is hacked up to bits in my trusty wheelbarrow, and then distributed equally in both beds. It is a nutrient rich cap for the subsoil layer and in fall the mushrooms may emerge and produce caps.

 

Over the mushroom Compost is a fresh layer of potting soil straight from the 72 liter bag. The type I use is just soil, no wetting agents, no fertilizer, no additives. 

 

The Cattle Panel Arch is installed in the middle of the filling process to make sure the support rods and everything holding it in the earth is deep enough. After that one bed is fully topped off with Potting soil and then the other which is unfinished in the picture gets the same soil treatment.

 

Now for the planting, take a look at the next two pictures for closeups.

 

 

Here's the right side, and from the bottom left: Fern Leaf Yarrow, Lavender, Elephant Garlic, Green Fennel, Patio Baby Eggplant, Marigolds, Cherokee Purple Tomato, Cucumbers, Yellow Salad Onions, Sweet Basil, Green Fennel, Orange You Sweet Pepper, Brandywine Tomato, Summer Squash.

 

The left side bed, plants from lower left: Lamb's Ear, Lemon Thyme, Mounding Blue Rue, Marigolds, Dandelion, Patio baby Eggplant, Green Fennel, Lemon Cherry Tomato, Yellow Salad Onions, Cucumbers, Sweet Basil, Lemon Cherry Tomato, Orange You Glad Peppers, Green Fennel, Summer Squash.

 

Just as I thought I was done, Polka who is one of the farm cats reminded me I forgot to put the pine straw out and put back the pavers.

 

This is how it looked when finished.