"Here is a variety that is seldom seen. It has an almost unbelievable flower, somewhat like 'Rainbow' only better. It has a very white center with a red picotee edge and red on the back side of the flower. Foliage is a dark yellow green."

--Harold Greer, GREER'S GUIDEBOOK TO AVAILABLE RHODODENDRONS

Wait until fall to exhume old Vinney, he will be making new shoot growth now.

The best thing you can do now is to prune the top back a little so it looks better and root prune it. This will make moving much easier. Pruning the leggy top back now will allow you to improve the appearance without loosing flowers buds. Root pruning will make the root ball more dense. To root prune, just go around the drip line of the plant with a spade, pushing it down do cut any roots that grow out from the plant.

Actually you can move a rhododendron any time but you need to if you watch it after you move it to make sure it doesn't dry out. This is easier when it is not in an active growth period like in the fall. By my friends in the American Rhododendron Society swap and move plants any time the soil isn't frozen so it can be done.

Only the stongest terminal shoots set buds. Smaller sideshoots replacing any of these that are cut off now will not be likely to set flower buds.

>Root pruning will make the root ball more dense<

Most rhododendrons already have compact, easily transplanted rootballs. Cutting all or part of the root system off just as new top growth is being made (and our summer dry season is coming on) doesn't seem like a very good idea.

"...with the multitude of factors involved, both internally in the plant and environmentally, the likelihood of striking the right combination is challenging. At this point root pruning may be one of those techniques that is best to talk about rather than practice."

Carl E. Whitcomb, Establishment and Maintenance of Landscape Plants

Why is Vincent an unusual plant Rhodyman?

bboy: you said "Only the stongest terminal shoots set buds. Smaller sideshoots replacing any of these that are cut off now will not be likely to set flower buds." That isn't true of many rhododendrons. It might be true for some deciduous azaleas, but I had deer bite off the terminal buds of 20 deciduous azalea plants just after they were planted last year, and this year the plants are covered with flowers. We routinely use the top flowers on the many varieties big leaf rhododendrons (which is what VvG is) we have and use them for cut flowers. The plants come back the next year very strong with lots of flowers. Big leaf rhododendrons do not develop such strong apical dominance as deciduous azaleas. Of course this would be even more true of the ones with mounding habit which most do have.