Hello,

I have 3 rhododendrons, with 2 azaleas in between, in a front flower bed. There is a row of five hostas in front of them. They were planted in the summer of 2009, and have been more or less fine until about two weeks ago.

This spring, the rhododendrons put out a bunch of new leaves, but for the last 2 weeks, it has been unseasonably cool and very rainy here, with a couple of hot sunny days sprinkled in. Now they look like this:

http://i.imgur.com/4ldd0.jpg

Some yellow leaves, some red leaves, and a lot of droopy, rolled up, looks-like-they're-dying leaves. I am especially concerned because most of the new growth looks like it's browning from the stem outward, like so:

http://i.imgur.com/1IrsS.jpg

and like so:

http://i.imgur.com/RHpjB.jpg

I know from browsing around here that the heavy rain we've had for the last two weeks is bad for them, so I'm sure that's a factor, but I'm concerned that's not the only thing going on.

As far as the bed, it is rocky (had river rock in it when we bought the house, removed as much as we could) and fairly shaded. I don't know about the soil pH, but I do leave this bed full of leaves over the winter to protect the azalea and rhodo roots, then clean it out in the spring.

Googling around, the browning of the leaf stems and the stem ends of the leaf seems to suggest a fungus?

Should I freak out? Should I trim the dead-ish stuff out? Are there products I should apply?

Any and all advice would be appreciated. Man this got long, sorry about that.