What Rhododendron?

A few years ago I was talking to my mom about our rhododendron. And either she's never been here in late May or early June when it's in full bloom or she's too busy noticing everything that's wrong with the house and porch that needs to be painted, but it's pretty hard to miss. Once when I was talking to her about my flower beds and flowering shrubs, she said, "What rhododendron?"

Here it is in it's former glory days. I say "former glory days" because it got infested with rhododendron borers and several branches were looking rather limp. So I did a little homework, consulted my Reader's Digest Illustrated Guide to Gardening, and then took a trip to the Hadley Garden Center. Tom, big cheese at the Hadley Garden Center, told me to trim off all the bad branches, below where the borers were. He also sort of recommended a nasty chemical I could use but suggested I do a bit more homework and talk it over with Trevor. We know him from church. He's a super nice guy. So I bought 5 bags of cocoa shell mulch (it was on sale) and went home.

The next good day the rhododendron got a trim. This is what it looks like now:


Trevor did a nice job of cleaning up and even added a rock border. He pulled out all the vines- bittersweet and poison ivy. We have more sunlight coming into the playroom now.
I was so worried that the birds would be pissed off but they still sit in the rhododendron waiting their turn at the feeders. It'll take a few years before it returns to its glory days.

Perhaps Mom will know what I'm talking about when I talk about the rhododendron?