JARS v64n1 - Preparing Your Flower Trusses for the Show!

Preparing Your Flower Trusses for the Show!
Dennis McKiver
Fort Bragg, California
Reprinted from the March 2009 Eureka Chapter Newsletter

People ask me, "When do you start choosing your trusses and getting them ready for the show?" The answer is "when the buds are forming." As the buds start to form in fall, I start picking out the ones that have potential. Judges like upright terminal trusses and perfect whorls of leaves. So, I look for those terminal buds that have good leaves. I then groom the buds and leaf whorls to make them even better. I remove any extra flower buds (hammer heads) and I remove any unnecessary leaves that throw off the balance of the whorl. I also remove any leaf buds that form under the flower bud and could push the flower bud over so it doesn't open upright. This is especially necessary on those rhododendrons whose new leaves have a tendency to emerge prior to the flower buds opening. (See Figs. 1 & 2.)

What if I don't have any good terminal buds forming? If I have good buds and leaves forming on lower branches I may use stakes to train these into upright straight stems. (See Fig. 3.)

Winter is the time to prep your bonsai, foliage plants, and blooming plants. Trim out dead wood and dead leaves and prune branches to shape the plant. Re-pot if necessary.

Withholding fertilizer and water in late summer and fall will often encourage flower bud development. You may not want to fertilize in late winter with quick release fertilizer, because this could induce new leaf growth. This could turn your potential flower buds into leaves. If this happens you may not get many flower buds in the spring. Worse yet, if you have new tender growth and we get an early frost, the new growth will suffer frost damage. If you have yellow leaves or other indication of iron deficiency, you can apply some iron and fertilizer to correct this. (See Fig. 4.)

The spring is also the time to start employing your pest control methods. The slugs start coming out when the rain starts. You can put out the slug bait or use manual control methods. This is also the time to treat the soil for root weevils, before they pupate and start chewing on your leaves. If you are going to use beneficial nematodes, you may have to wait until spring when the frost is gone.

I watch the flower buds develop throughout the winter and spring until the show. As we get closer to the show, I narrow down my entries. I'll tag potential entries and make out an entry card for them. For those plants that I have in pots, I may try to estimate when the buds will be fully open and I will then try to manipulate the bloom's timing by moving them into the shade if they are opening too fast or into the sun if they are opening too slow.

Just before the show, I look at the weather report. If it looks like rain may damage some blooms just before the show, I will move them under cover if they are in containers or pick the trusses early and let them open in the house or garage. Some flower trusses, such as 'Tahitian Dawn' and 'Black Sport', never seem to open fully without blemishes if left to open in the sun. These I will pick early and allow them to finish opening in a vase in the house. For the rest of the trusses I will enter, I start doing the final selection the week before the show. Then the week before the show, I start picking fully open trusses about Tuesday. From experience I know that some trusses will last in good shape a week or two in a vase. These I pick as soon as they are fully open and are looking good, so as to avoid potential weather damage. Those flower trusses that don't last as long I save until the last day to pick. I usually have everything that I will be entering picked by Friday morning.

I hope this helps you with your entries. I'm looking forward to another great show.

Dennis McKiver is a member of the Noyo ARS Chapter.