Have You Noticed That Your Rhododendron Leaves Have Turned Brown?

What do you do when rhododendron leaves turn brown? Are you upset about seeing your Rhodies in this state? I am too! I have seven of my favorite Rhodies in this deplorable state. Don’t lose hope! Be patient and they may come back!

Leaves with excessive browning from winter stress probably will recover. Watch for recovery and if leaves don't bounce back or branches don't develop new buds and growth in the spring, trim them off the plant. You should get new growth in other areas of the plant in the spring.

According to our Community Rose Garden expert, Kevin Tessitore, a graduate of UConn with a degree in agriculture, “winter injury and winter kill of rhododendrons is common when the winter is windy and cold, especially for prolonged periods. This past winter was brutally windy and cold four days a week at least for a couple months all around our properties and town. That qualifies for this damage seen. Now is a good time to investigate the plants to determine where to cut off the dead wood. Kevin suggests that one cut just above the spot of the new growth.

I personally noticed that the weather would become brutally cold and then it would heat up causing the buds to start to bloom. This back and forth contributed to this sorry, sad state causing the leaves to curl up and turn brown.

Other causes for the browning of rhododendron leaf tips can be caused by several factors, including bad drainage, too little water, the scorching of leaves due to (inadvertent) herbicide exposure, and leaf burn caused by full sun exposure. There are also fungal and bacterial diseases.

*A little language lesson: To dry up in Latin is “siccare” and in Italian it is “seccare” and in Spanish, it is “secar”. Thus, one has the English word which is a cognate, de-siccate. desiccation, (the act or process of drying or desiccating something or the state of being or becoming dried up or losing water: removal or loss of moisture : through drying. The prefix de- means “from or of”.) Being passionate about languages, I always look at words to learn where they come from and how they relate to Latin and the other Romance languages as well as to English. By the way, Rhododendron comes from the Greek word meaning “rose tree”. Happy learning and gardening! We learn so much from words and nature!